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thrythlind · 4 months

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Katalepsis MotW Arc 7 Level Up

So... first thing I'm going to do is give both Evee and Raine an extra level up I didn't give the other characters. This is to account for a development that makes itself known almost immediately (within the first 3-4 parts).

Some might wonder why I'm giving those two a level up rather than the other two. I've been keeping level-ups equivalent for my own benefit, but since one of the main ways a hunter gets experience is by rolling poorly, that means you do get some uneven leveling up. Hunters that build themselves to be more reliable and effective from the get go (such as having a Monstrous start with both Unholy Strength and Unnatural Appeal so that they can roll half their basic moves with their massive Weird scores) tend to level-up slower than characters that make things harder on themselves.

Given that Raine and Evee are both partially out of commission at the start of arc 7, I think that justifies saying they had a bit more bad luck with their dice.

Now, what am I spending this on you ask? Why this one particular advanced improvement:

There are three characters I considered as the potential for being second hunters:

Zheng

Nicole Webb

Praem

And yes, I know Praem is currently on Evee's character sheet as an Ally. Well, this is not an unknown phenomenon for me. Let me go over the list of second hunters that have happened in my longer campaigns.

A second character planned from the get-go who was delayed joining because the player thought it was important that at least on hunter know how to drive. (Was the Exile)

An Italian police inspector who had been investigating the players' secret agency and whom I had cause problems off screen when they rolled low dealing with locals or doing investigation. (Became The Flake)

A recurring character who was a college kid that died and whom they accidentally semi-resurrected without noticing. Apparently the answer to "who's going to explain to her she's undead" was "we'll make her a PC".

A random girl they rescued from an incarnation of entropy in a Tibetan temple.

The original person who belonged in the body that the Monstrous had been possessing since the beginning of the campaign.

That was three different groups of players.

I seem to get a lot of people who go "hey, you know that NPC we all like? Can I make them my second hunter?"

Anyway. on to picking who these new characters.

Praem is a natural, she's one of the new hunters, and I'm going to pull up a third party playbook I rarely involve myself with. I've been considering this for her for a while, but I've also been considering changing Evelyn into a not-yet-released playbook that is focused on working with allies. Amusingly, one of the improvements for said not-yet-public playbook is to designate one of your allies to become a new hunter should your character "die" and said ally-turned-hunter would get a +1 to every roll they take towards either avenging or reviving you. To quote one of my playtesters from a sci-fi game who giggled on finding this "I'm going to be the angriest drone". And if I had STARTED Evee out as that playbook... this circumstance would have fallen SOOO neatly into that. But I started Evee off as the Expert. I might still have her go to that playbook later.

So, now, let's look to the cases for Nicole Webb vs Zheng.

In all honesty, either one feels like they're going to be a bit hit or miss on whether they are around or not. But I point again to the fact that players not required to play both their hunters all the time. So that's fine. Zheng has a lot more history with the team, but also Nicole's introduction is this weird blend of coming way out of left-field but also doing so that makes plausible sense and fits seemlessly into the story with no stress to suspension of disbelief. Heck the arrival of some sort of police officer was foreshadowed a lot earlier than that.

Also, Webb is a bit easier for me to model without duplicating playbooks. I already have a Monstrous and a Hard Case. Zheng is probably doable as a Summoned, though she herself isn't really a herald of Doomsday, and that's a fairly big part of the Summoned central story, so that's a bit hard. Divine would be another option, especially given that in addition to being able to make up your own mission, there's one that states that the Divine is just sort of on Earth for their own reasons.

Also I just like Zheng as a dangerous and chaotic Ally rather than fellow hunter. Similar to Lozzie, actually.

Finally, as I said, Nicole just feels like the sort of thing a player would throw into the mix. "Hey, that police officer we just caught, can I make her my second hunter?"

So that brings to what sort of hunter she is. I've thrown around the ideas of The Gumshoe and The Mundane... but I think I'm going to play her as The Professional and that's going to be a twist because The Professional usually works for an Agency that explicitly hunts monsters, but we're going to build her using the resources of the police force with said police force being out of the know.

But before we do that, we're going to create Praem as a hunter.

As I said earlier, she is going to be "The Constructed", a playbook which represents exactly what it sounds like: an animated statue or other object.

The Constructed starts with three moves, two mandatory and one selected from a list of five.

The first Mandatory move is "Inhuman" which gives Praem difficulty in understanding human behavior, mannerisms, and emotions. In this case, it feels more like her limited expression is hampering her than her understanding but the effect is the same. Also, this move means that Praem has 10 Harm boxes instead of 7 and she never goes unstable. This gives her more health than Raine, but she's still not as invulnerable as say Twil who may have less Harm, but is far harder to damage and heals rapidly.

The second is Recharge: You may repair yourself by immersing yourself into a source of your animating force, but it's dangerous. It's basically an option to swiftly heal that fleshies don't have. In Praem's case this would likely be a magic ritual to repair and replace her into a body.

For the third move, there are three that stand out: "Mystic Focus" meaning her body can act as a component in use magic and rituals; "Hide in Plain Sight", where if you stay very still people tend not to notice you... typically this is because they mistake the Constructed for a statue, but that's easily refluffed into her just generally "suddenly there" bits. But the one I'm going with is "But Why?" where her struggles to understand people mean she gets more out of people than they mean to give and that fits very well with how quickly she's learning.

I've usually been skipping Gear selections, but for The Constructed some of their gear options involves their body, so I'm going to focus in on that option right now and give her "Fists" and "Wrestle" to represent her great strength.

Finally, I think her basic Weird move is going to be "No Limits" similar to Twil.

Now, for stats. All Constructed get Tough +2, so what remains is to choose which of the five stat-lines for Constructed she'll take. I want her to have positive Weird, so that cuts the options to two:

Charm -1, Cool -1, Sharp +0, Tough +2, Weird +2

Charm 0, Cool +1, Sharp -1, Tough +2, Weird +1

Both have solid points in their favor: Praem is a bit of a hot-head for as much as she has few words to express it so her Cool could be low, but also she does teamwork well and handles hazards better than most. So you could also Cool is pretty high. Her ability to talk to people is limited and mostly dependent on being around people who are her long time friends. She is not unobservant, but also she doesn't often do the investigative side of things.

I think I'm going to go with the option for +1 Weird though, for a wider range of stats representing Praem after some more growth. If I had introduced her as a new hunter right from when she was introduced, I would have gone with the first line.

Now, for her Purpose, a special feature of The Constructed. The options are "Weapon" meaning she'd do more damage with her attacks, "Guardian", making her better at protecting people, "Asisstant" which makes her better at teamwork, and "Experiment" which lets her start off with an extra move from another Playbook.

She also has an "Animating Force" which is going to be "Magic" as I noted earlier. Unfortunately her generally tough nature means she doesn't heal naturally on her own. The fiction doesn't match this, so I'm going to be addressing that with a later improvement.

And actually... while Assistant would probably be more to the intention Evee had, the way the story developed feels more like Experiment and I'm going to work in a bit of how she's a bit good at detecting danger while not often doing the research side of things: "Tactical Genius" a Professional move that lets the hunter use Read a Bad Situation with Cool instead of Sharp, taking her Read from a -1 to a +1, better than most people in the world.

And speaking of The Professional, lets move on to Nicole Webb... and I have to say I ALMOST changed her to The Gumshoe so that she'd have less direct involvement with the Police whenever she got involved. What stopped me was The Gumshoe's Code which, as long as they adhere to it the individual would be immune to any sort of supernatural possession or charm among other benefits tied to other moves. And I just don't think Nicole's there yet. Currently, the Code I'd give her would be "Attention to detail, it's part of the job" but I'm not sure how that code would lead to dramatic situations where she's tempted to break it. Which is another reason for skipping on Gumshoe.

So, back to The Professional. We're going to start with stats this time and, as a note, all Professionals have +2 Cool, keeping their head on straight is what they are best at. And looking at the stat lines there's one that stands out for her:

Charm +1, Cool +2, Sharp +1, Tough -1, Weird +0

She's not much of a fighter, but she notes she was called in to talk to witnesses as a soft touch and she's pretty damn observant. So +1 Charm and +1 Sharp are both good choices (remember +1 is better than most people out and about).

Now for her Agency, we have to design the Sharrowford Police Department. It will get two Resources (good traits) and two Red Tape options (bad trait).

I already know the Red Tape here and it's going to include one of my not-yet-public traits for Agencies, but I'll just reveal this one since people could easily homebrew these traits (heck the not-yet-public project gives advice on how to home brew stuff for this game). Anyway, the Red Tape will be "Skepticism" and "Hostile Superiors" because her bosses don't like her and the department doesn't believe in the supernatural.

Now, for Resources: I think "Official Pull" and "Recognized Authority" are both good options here.

The Professional gets Four moves, one of which is mandatory: "Deal with the Agency" which represents their attempts to leverage the Agency for the mysteries and how they might get suspended or even under investigation if things go badly.

For the optional three, we have a list of seven moves to choose from. We're going with "Mobility" because she has a car, though I don't think it is ever described (but I may have just missed it). It will have two good things and one bad one, so saying "anonymous" and "toolkit" for the good things, and "gas-guzzler" for the bad thing. I'm also giving her "Bottle Up" which allows you to take bonuses on rolls to Act Under Pressure with the understanding that the Keeper can turn those into penalties against you later on a different roll as those bottled up emotions come rolling out. And for the third, I'm left with options that she doesn't quite demonstrate, but could have done off-screen. I'm going with "Battlefield Awareness" so that she's always counted as having +1 armor on top of whatever she's wearing, to a maximum of 2. Meaning if she wears a concealable vest, then she has comparable mechanical armor to Twil.

For her Weird basic move, I'm going with Trust Your Gut, similar to Raine.

Also, I realize I need to consider whether to include these two newbies in the Team Playbook... Praem certainly does, but I'm going to hold off on Nicole Webb for a bit. I don't think she's fully initiated and I'm also not sure what supernatural weirdness to get her as a full coven member. If she turns back up, I assume something will present itself.

For Praem, I'm giving her a Monstrous Move: and it's going to be "Something Borrowed" (yes, I use that one a lot) and the move she's borrowing is "Prepared to Defend" from the Searcher which means that if she Kicks Some Ass or Protects Someone, she suffers 1 Harm less. For her Curse, Pure Drive: Love. Praem does a lot of unwise things in the name of helping her friends.

Also, for reference, I think Nicole is the second hunter for Evee's player and Praem is the second hunter for Raine's player. Mostly because of the line about how "she's bitter you'd like her" being told to Evee about Nicole and the way Praem tends to playfully engage with both Heather and Evee a lot.

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Now for level ups.

This was a long one, and I'm going to do the following:

Evee, Raine, Twil, and Heather will each get two more improvements (accounting for them being a bit more reliable with generally higher stats and thus leveling slower.)

Nicole and Praem will get four level-ups. Because this was a long'un and they be newbies, so more poor rolls to deal with. Partially because this puts Nicole in range of changing playbooks soon if the plot sees her quit or get fired. In which case, I might take her to either The Searcher or The Gumshoe.

I'm also giving the Team Playbook 2 level ups. Perhaps some people gave some of their XP to the Team Playbook.

Moving on, let's deal with Heather's level ups. She's a newbie Hex but she's already flirting with the Hex advanced moves. Felt like she was on the verge of going Apotheosis, then leaned toward Synthesis by saving Sarika's life, but she's go a ways to go before she can make the choice between those two (she'll only ever get to pick one).

On the matter of how she freed Zheng, I could see that as Force of Will, but that is generally only a temporary suppression. However, it could serve as part of a Big Magic ritual and the effort taken does feel like it fits. I could also give her another Rote. What I'm going to do is give her +1 Weird for sure, to max her out at +3. She be as weird as the weirdest monster now. I'm also going to let her borrow a move from another playbook (something The Hex can only do once) to pick up "Third Eye" from the Spell-Slinger (think Harry Dresden) because of how often she started using her hyperdimensional math to analyze and define people, spells, and things.

I considered giving her a Rote to explain resurrecting/saving Sarika. But I think that was possibly a one-time mystery thing for now, once I see it or something like it repeated: New Rote.

Also... can I just say... wow was The Hex and Addiction a good choice for Heather... holy cow... she even almost followed straight across the moral event horizon when she considered killing Nicole at first. (here's me imagining Heather's player saying "I'm just going to kill her" and Evee's player saying, "Actually, can I make her my second hunter?" "What?" and the Keeper going "What if Lozzie talks you down.... again I'm reframing a bit of fiction... if something like that happened in Hungry's stream of consciousness as she was writing this, I'd be astounded.)

Now, on to Raine. For her two level-ups, I'm taking two of the Hard Case unique ones: giving her another +1 Harm so that she's even harder to kill and I'm giving her last move (until she changes playbooks) and having her borrow Unfazeable to take her cool to +3... because she took a frigging nap in a house that was literally going to hell as if it was no big deal.

On to Evee. Well, Evee is losing the ally she got for Adept Sorcerer since Praem is now a hunter and has her own agency (but not Agency, that's Nicole) and everything. And, you know what... I'm going to use one of my not yet public optional advanced improvements to give her a second basic Weird move which will be Summoner and yep, that's a new one coming up, suffice to say it is about calling monsters into being to do jobs for you. And for her second level up.... I'm changing her playbook to Covenant a playbook all about working with allies.

Now, on changing playbooks, there's nothing about Evee's stats that really need changing or removal... I'm crossing out Adept Sorcerer, but that would have happened anyway. This playbook comes with a free ally or ally team and an ability to protect allies that fall once per session. In Evee's case I'm going with a Rolodex representing a team of allies that have varying specialties and operate individually. If Praem were still an Ally, I'd have instead gone with Watson for a single extra-competent ally. Evee's allies are summoned demons.

In addition to those elements, this playbook gets two other moves and those will be Smash Cut where you reveal that you had sent a particular ally to do a task for you off screen and Who Said I Was Alone? allowing an ally to suddenly appear on the scene at the last minute to protect you from disaster. And I've kind of seen Praem do both of these things already. I don't expect that Evee will create another ally nearly as emotionally invested as Praem in the rest of the story, switching to this playbook does feel like an expansion and mechanical shaping of things she has already done in the past.

Now, on to Twil. I'm considering changing her playbook, but I'm of two minds about it. On the one hand, I'm thinking of changing her to the playbook I borrowed some of her moves from. On the other I think she's also leaning very heard into the idea of The Protector, a third party playbook I've seen played on The Monster's Playbook podcast. Because I'm not sure which direction to go though, I'm instead going to hold off and spend her two level ups on increasing her Cool twice, to get it to +1. So she's now better at dealing with hazards and teamwork (for example, grabbing Evee so that both of them are behind Heather could be an example of helping Heather Protect Someone... which Heather really needs... because she's not that tough). That uses her +1 Cool and her +1 any improvement so until she changes playbooks, that's as high as that's going.

I have been told that Twil is a bit off but I wouldn't know why yet. Not sure I've hit that point of in the story where I realize what I got wrong yet.

For Praem, for one of her level-ups I'm giving her a second Animating Force in the form of "Meditation" similar to how Zheng did it. It takes time and leaves them vulnerable to attack and notice, but it does mean that she doesn't depend on a mage to heal her all the time. Just in catastrophic cases, and that better fits the fiction. For another level up, I am going to give her +1 Weird to get it to +2. I'm also going to borrow a move from another playbook: Helping Hand from the Initiate so that when she helps out she grants +2 instead of +1. Finally, I'm going to give her +1 Cool so that it goes up to +2 which will affect her Help Out, Act Under Pressure, and Read a Bad Situation.

For Nicole, I'm going to borrow The Naked City from The Gumshoe and say she has contacts with Police (Local), Accountants, Media, and Criminals (Street). The Media is mostly a nod to the end of the arc where she gets some national attention her way. I'm also giving her +1 Sharp and +1 Charm. I'm also giving her "Leave No One Behind". I know she didn't actually pull Sarika single-handedly out of danger... but fake it til you make, you know?

For the Team Playbook, I'm going for Zheng as a new Team Ally and another team move: Bell, Book, and Candle which is a move that makes the group very very good at performing rituals that should take a lot more people. Basically, each member of the group counts as three people for the purpose of Big Magic. Feels like that could explain how they punch over their weight class so thoroughly in a lot of cases.

Which results in the following character sheets:

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Team Playbook: Coven

Team Style: Superheroes with Fangs, Oath: The means determines the ends.

Team Ally: Lozzie, Zheng

Team Enemy: The Eye

Team Moves: Laws of Hospitality; How Awful Goodness Is; Bell, Book, and Candle

Team Asset: Headquarters, Archive, Leyline Map, Wards and Barriers, Ritual Cupboard, Armory

Improvements

Take two more dots worth of Assets: Leyline Map

Take two more dots worth of Assets: Wards and Barriers

Take a new Teambook Move: How Awful Goodness Is

Take two more dots worth of Assets: Ritual Cupboard and Armory

Take a new Team Ally: Zheng

Take a new Teambook Move: Bell, Book, and Candle

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Heather Morell - The Spooky The Hex

Charm +2

Cool +1

Sharp +1

Tough -1

Weird +3

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Use Magic

Advanced Basic Moves: Use Magic, Read a Bad Situation

Spooky Moves: The Sight, Tune In, Jinx, The Big Whammy

Hex Moves: Bad Luck Charm, Burn Everything, Wise Soul

Borrowed Moves (Spooky): Guardian: Tenny (Ally Type: Bodyguard, to intercept danger), FINISH HIM! (Fire)

Borrowed Move (Hex): Third Eye

Dark Side: Paranoia, Guilt, Pain

Temptation: Addiction

Rotes

Out: 1-harm, nausea, touch target. roll +Weird, 10+ send them where you want and you can retrieve them. 7-9 you lose track, they or their disappearance will be a problem. 6- you're unable to complete it and attract bad attention.

Fire: 0/10 (Fire increases when)

Each 1 Harm suffered

Each time a friend is hurt

Each time someone defies Heather

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Weapons:

The Big Whammy - 2-harm, close, obvious, ignore-armor. (Kick Some Ass with +Weird)

Burn Everything A - 3-harm, area, magic, obvious (Use Magic)

Burn Everything B - 3-harm, ignore-armor, magic, obvious (Use Magic)

Mark of Kinship

Changeling Move: They are my People

Unknown Heritage: Strange Thoughts, Sensory Bombardment

Improvements

Take a Spooky Move: The Big Whammy

Take a move from another playbook: Guardian (Searcher)

Increase Charm +1, max 2

Take a move from another playbook: FINISH HIM! (Hard Case)

Increase Cool +1, max 2

Use Magic and Read a Bad Situation advanced

Change Playbook: The Hex

Increase Weird +1, max 3

Take a move from another playbook: Third Eye (Spell-Slinger)

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Raine Haynes - The Hard Case

Charm +1

Cool +3

Sharp +0

Tough +3

Weird -1

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Trust Your Gut

Advanced Basic Moves: Kick Some Ass, Manipulate Someone

Hard Knocks: Bodyguard

Hard Case Moves: Furnace (Fire), Stone Cold, Inspired Guesswork (Fire), Weapon Master, Unstoppable (Fire)

Borrowed Moves: Background: Burglary (Crooked), Unfazeable

Fire: 0/10 (Fire increases when)

Each 1 Harm suffered

Each time a friend is hurt

Each time someone defies Raine

Harm: 0/9 (Unstable at 5, Dead at 10)

Mark of Kinship

Monstrous Move: Something Borrowed: Ancient Fighting Arts

Curse: Pure Drive (Violence)

Gear: A spell formula written on a napkin, pistol (2 harm close), Crowbar/Baseball Bat (2-harm hand messy innocuous, 3 Harm with Ancient Fighting Arts), Huge Fucking Knife (2-harm hand messy, 3-harm hand with Ancient Fighting Arts)

Improvements:

Increase Cool +1, max 2

Increase Tough +1, max 3

Take a Hard Case move: Weapon Master

Take a Hard Case move: Unstoppable

Add 1 Harm box before the unstable line.

Take a move from another Playbook: Background: Burglary (Crooked)

Kick Some Ass and Manipulate Someone advanced

Create a Second Hunter: Praem

Take a move from another playbook: Unfazeable

Add an extra harm box to your harm track before "Dying"

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Evelyn "Evee" Saye - The Expert The Covenant

Charm +0

Cool +1

Sharp +2

Tough -1

Weird +2

Moves

Weird Move: Use Magic, Summoner

Known Summons: Tardus venandi, Servitors

Advanced Basic Moves: Use Magic, Investigate a Mystery

Expert Moves: Often Right, Dark Past, Preparedness, I've read about this sort of thing.

Covenant Moves: Covenant, Friendship: Rolodex, Smash Cut, Who Said I Was Alone?

Borrowed Moves: Dark Negotiator, Adept Sorcerer: Praem (Ally type: Subordinate to follow your exact instructions)

Haven: Mystical Library, Protection Spells, Magical Laboratory, Guardian

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Mark of Kinship

Fractal Rote: Roll +Weird, 10+ the symbol is stable and will last some days of passive use and hours of active use. 7-9 the symbol wears out quickly and will break down much more rapidly. 6- the symbol will fail at the worst possible moment.

Summoning Rote: Roll +Weird, 10+ the summoned creature will be strong and responsive, 7-9 the summoned creature will be strong or responsive, but not both, 6- the creature will go out of control.

Temptation: Vengeance

Improvements

Increase Weird +1, max 2

Take a move from another playbook: Adept Sorcerer (Exile)

Take a move from another playbook: Dark Negotiator (Monstrous)

Take an Expert move: Preparedness

Take an Expert move: I've read about this sort of thing.

Add an option to your haven

Use Magic and Investigate a Mystery advanced

Create a Second Hunter: Nicole Webb

Add a second Weird Move: Summoner

Change playbooks: The Covenant

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Twil Hopton - The Monstrous

Charm +0

Cool +0

Sharp +0

Tough +2

Weird +3

Breed: Werewolf

Curse: Vulnerability Silver

Natural Attack: Claws (3-harm hand), Fangs (3-harm intimate)

Moves

Basic Weird Move: No Limits

Advanced Basic Moves: Protect Someone, No Limits

Monstrous Moves: Something Borrowed: Invincible, Unquenchable Vitality, Shapeshifter, Preternatural Speed

Borrowed Moves: Predator and Prey, Symbiosis (Benefits: Can't be possessed, non-physical symbiote, Downsides: Limited Communication)

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Armor: 2 (Invincible)

Mark of Kinship

Spooky Move: Hunches

Dark Side: Secrets, Poor Impulse Control

Improvements:

Take a Monstrous move: Shapeshifter

Take a Monstrous move: Preternatural Speed

Take a move from another playbook: Predator and Prey (Host)

Take a move from another playbook: Symbiosis (Host)

Increase Charm +1, max 2

Add another natural attack option

Protect Someone and No Limits Advanced

Increase Cool +1, max 2

Increase any +1, max 3 (Cool)

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Praem - The Constructed

Charm +0

Cool +2

Sharp -1

Tough +2

Weird +2

Purpose: Experiment

Animating Force: Magic, Meditation

Moves

Basic Weird Move: No Limits

Constructed Moves: Inhuman, Recharge, But Why?

Experiment Borrowed Move: Tactical Genius (Professional)

Borrowed Moves (Constructed): Helping Hand (Initiate)

Harm: 0/10 (Dead at 11)

Mark of Kinship

Monstrous Move: Something Borrowed: Prepared to Defend (Searcher)

Curse: Pure Drive (Love)

Improvements:

Add a second Animating Force

Increase Cool +1, max 2

Increase Weird +1, max 2

Take a move from another playbook: Helping Hand (Initiate)

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Detective Sergeant Nicole Webb - The Professional

Charm +2

Cool +2

Sharp +2

Tough -1

Weird +0

Agency: Sharrowford Police Department

Resources: Official Pull, Recognized Authority

Red Tape: Hostile Superiors, Skepticism

Moves

Basic Weird Move: Trust Your Gut

Professional Moves: Deal with the Agency; Mobility: Anonymous, Toolkit, Gas-Guzzler; Bottle it Up; Battlefield Awareness; Leave No One Behind

Borrowed Moves (Professional): The Naked City: Local Police, Accountants, Media, Street Criminals (Gumshoe)

Harm: 0/7 (Unstable at 4, Dead at 8)

Improvements:

Take a move from another playbook: The Naked City (Gumshoe)

Increase Sharp +1, Max 2

Increase Charm +1, Max 2

Take a Professional move: Leave No One Behind

#roleplaying games #rpg #monster of the week #ttrpg #tabletop #katalepsis #cosmic horror #lesbian romance #new hunters #The team is so big now #Please please please project go public.

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picklesttrpg · 10 months

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(temporary) Introduction!! to PICKLE'S WORLD

Hello!!! I'm Pickle! (Or rather, The Pickle God)

And I really want to develop my own world and make a TTRPG out of it! With an entire system and all!

Hence I'm the literal god of pickles, I won't waste time with labels and stuff like that, I am a pickle. And I ramble a lot, sadly

Ngl I'm really new to tumblr, so like hang in there with me please! I'm learning as I go, like I discovered formatting text just a few days ago.

What Pickle actually wants

I have a world with characters, worldbuilding, all the juicy stuff including unecessary details. I have an entire web of morons, historical events and everything, and am working on many stories that happen all throughout it (Writing one as a personal thing, and I was publishing a webcomic over another one, tho thanks to irl stuff it's on hiatus rn)

I'm actually horrible with names, and even tho I've worked on the world for 6-7 years by now, I still don't have a name for it (please help). As most creators, I wanted to share it with the world, to get feedback and improve on it! Offer my silly little concept and pickles for everyone to see. But besides that I have one more dream.

My world is in one big busy city. Filled to the brim with wonky characters, all fighting for being more and more important than the other. (and really, individuality is rewarded whilst people who are passive and grey usually end up at the edge of the society) Everything from biker grandmas living out their wildest final years, aspiring children supervillains to singing popstar priests, worshipping an entity which lives in the stars. This is reaching lore territory, but in this world, everyone has to strive to be the best and most exciting version of themselves, otherwise their past might catch up to them.

I wanted my world to be a place for other *real* people to thrive in. To create a character (or multiple!), who can go do what they truly want (and suffer in the process) I think it's just so incredibly cool when other people make characters for your own world, where you can think about them interacting with everyone, participating in the events, and having an entirely new story to share!

I essentially wish my world could once be a place for others to create ocs for and roleplay in. (now there is more to it, obviously, but like how cool is that! someone 'moving into' your world and story!)

Why TTRPG then?

Now, I work on the world and stories all the time, but I've never had them in any publicly shareable versions. Additionally, I didn't know if people online would actually ever care. But that's the sweet benefit of tumblr blogs, from what I noticed. It can be a little unnoticed blog and it's just vibing and doing its own thing!

I have friends who are reaaaaaalllly into DnD and few other games like that. I've played with them, and know even some DMs!

Now, isn't dnd great? You make your own character, explore a new cool world with possible friends, do some cool (or mostly unhinged) stuff and literally immerse yourself int everything! Really, a roleplaying game like that seems a great fit for anyone who wants people to explore their worldbuilding and writing!

But personally, conventional dnd isn't for me, and the systems are quite complicated. And as fun and intricate as they are, I also know many begginers, who may get scared away or confused. I found Call of Cthulhu much more enjoyable! Including the system in it, it's been fun, especially the sanity mechanic, and also how it offered different type of challenge and roleplaying purpuose from dnd!

Additionally, I could never imagine adapting all the mechanics into my world, seeing as my own lore offers different playstyles and opportunities. (Like I can't even use the races and classes)

So, I've decided, with a help of few friends, to try and create a new-ish system, specifically built with my world in mind!

The goal is to be simple and begginer-friendly, to shorten the learning curve, but also give more space to people who want to roleplay and develop their characters.

One of the main 'concepts is' "If shit goes down, do whatever you can."

Conflicts can be resolved in any way, from fighting, reasoning to seduction, bribery, or even just a well timed kick to the nuts, poke someone's eye out with a paper. And I wanted a system simple enough to spare us most of the math and formalities, and one which would work the 'same' way regardless of the player's actions,

I want to focus on characters, city/environment exploration and putting players as protags into stories, which are more than "slay the dragon, save the village, rock on brother"...mostly cause my world would crumble under any actual adventurers.

These are just wonky people with minimum wage jobs, physical trauma and debt, living life in a world where everyone is forced to be the protag sometimes.

The entire system is in EARLY BABY STAGES! but I want to share it, and both report on how the testing in practice goes, but also possibly get some input and advice from you, *the internet people*, to make it the best it can be? This is a huge learning experience for me, and honestly, I'd just love to take you on the adventure with me.

So, are you interested in lots of worldbuilding and lore-heavy characters? Or would you like to help with creating a TTRPG?

If so, please join me on my adventure!

Aid The Pickle God!

oh and dw, i don't think i have the capability/skills nor desire to make this system/game thing monetizable. I do not ask for any money, but please, don't claim any of my characters or stories as your own. They're very personal and important to me. I want this system to encourage more people to try roleplaying like this, and promote character creation (alongside developing my own ocs), so especially the system, feel free to use it, and let me know how it went! would love suggestions and help with it, to make it the best it can be! And I want to offer my world too, but for now, I think it's still a bit too early for that. Please get inspired and make your own worlds and stories fun and wonky! But again, don't claim my work please :)

And now, Pickle out!

Worship and devour me, mortals!

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