Tabletop RPG Catch All

I'll take a look at all of them, even though I don't imagine I'll be learning to DM anytime soon. Thanks!

So just a heads up, the BLM charity pack on Itch.io contains a TON of small indie TTRPG projects (and a couple of bigger books as well, there's an anime mecha game - Lancer - and a magical girl game - Glitter Hearts - that look neat, plus Blades in the Dark) mixed in with all the indie digital games. WELL worth the minimum $5 asking price.

WAY too much for me to list here, but have a good trawl through and see if anything catches your eye!

In other news, even though i HATE trying to read through TTRPG PDFs (i find it much easier to flip through a physical book), i'm finally trying to learn the Dishonored TTRPG system and it's kinda neat. It very much leans into the narrative vs mechanics side of things (it's got similarities with Blades in the Dark, ironically, and things like Tales From The Loop).

My favourite thing so far is the way skill checks work. You basically have two columns of main skills. The left column is your basic skills : Fight, Move, Study, Survive, Talk, and Tinker.

The right column is the "style" that you take when using skills from the first column. So...Boldly, Carefully, Cleverly, Forcefully, Quietly and Swiftly

Then when you want to do something in the game, you combo them up in a context senstive manner (so - if you are trying to rush to KO a guard that's just spotted you it could be either Fight > Quietly to take him out stealthily, with a risk that they get away, or Fight > Swiftly to guarantee catching up to him but risking making more noise...that sort of thing.

And then you have specific class focuses which are your more specialised abilities.

You add the values to both to get the "target" number you need to get <= on 2 20-sided dice (a roll of a 1, or using a focus skill is a critical success which = 2 successes. The number to beat is the difficulty set by the GM, which is basically a number from 0-5, being the number of successes you need to beat on the skill check.
2 is the middle of the road average difficulty.

If you get more successes than you need, the leftover points get added to a "momentum" pool that the PCs can use in various ways, similar to Inspiration but more flexible, as it can be used to add new "truths" to a scene - the lock on that door is rusty and old, the guard has fallen asleep at his post, etc.

Anyway, i'm still muddling though it but it's interesting! Big departure from D&D

pyxistyx wrote:

So just a heads up, the BLM charity pack on Itch.io contains a TON of small indie TTRPG projects (and a couple of bigger books as well, there's an anime mecha game - Lancer - and a magical girl game - Glitter Hearts - that look neat, plus Blades in the Dark) mixed in with all the indie digital games. WELL worth the minimum $5 asking price.

WAY too much for me to list here, but have a good trawl through and see if anything catches your eye!

So I basically just paid $10 for Blades in the Dark and got 700+ other things free, nice

And Quadrilateral Cowboy from BLENDO Games!

And Night in the Woods! And Overland!

Holy forking shirtballs.

Yeah this was a must for me since I don't have Blades in the Dark yet. Also has Lancer and Oxenfree? Heck yes take my charitable donation please!

pyxistyx wrote:

If you get more successes than you need, the leftover points get added to a "momentum" pool that the PCs can use in various ways, similar to Inspiration but more flexible, as it can be used to add new "truths" to a scene - the lock on that door is rusty and old, the guard has fallen asleep at his post, etc.

Justin Alexander (line developer on Infinity RPG, which is also 2d20) posted some house rules for using individual momentum pools. I haven’t run Infinity RPG, but the thing that really stuck out was the off-turn engagement stuff. I totally stole that for my PF2 game by giving my players a way to spend their hero points to help each other out. It almost immediately became the primary way hero points got spent.

interesting! thanks!

Bit of a change of pace from fantasy maps. Got a commission to make a map for a Things From The Flood campaign. I tried to match the style with the maps in the original TFTL/TFTF sourcebooks as much as I could . I really like how it turned out

IMAGE(https://smackfolio.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/tftl-polish-map-v3.jpg)

Cool. I didn't know you make maps. I guess I need to spend more time around here. The edges are a nice touch.

pyxistyx wrote:

So just a heads up, the BLM charity pack on Itch.io contains a TON of small indie TTRPG projects (and a couple of bigger books as well, there's an anime mecha game - Lancer - and a magical girl game - Glitter Hearts - that look neat, plus Blades in the Dark) mixed in with all the indie digital games. WELL worth the minimum $5 asking price.

WAY too much for me to list here, but have a good trawl through and see if anything catches your eye!

Thanks for the heads up on this. Some really solid choices for RPG's. The downside is that the list is getting bigger. As I am going through the 34 pages of listed content, I click next page to see 2 more pages of content added. Its to a point that some really good content will just get lost in the mess. So if there is anything else you recommend in there please let me know. My group has already expressed interest in Glitter Hearts and Sleepaway.

I started a thread to see if people here wanted to collaborate on a fantasy RPG town "world build".

GWJ Collaborative Fantasy Town

-BEP

Oh i am ALL about that bizness Bepnewt!

manta173 wrote:

Cool. I didn't know you make maps. I guess I need to spend more time around here. The edges are a nice touch.

I have something that vaguely resembles a portfolio selection of them here, if yer curious

pyxistyx wrote:
manta173 wrote:

Cool. I didn't know you make maps. I guess I need to spend more time around here. The edges are a nice touch.

I have something that vaguely resembles a portfolio selection of them here, if yer curious

Wow, nice variety too... that island map gives me some ideas... been watching too much one piece lately... (in the late 400s)

I've been trying to compile and collect all of the TTRPG things added to that itch bundle (which they keep adding to!) here, for anyone interested.
https://itch.io/c/904743/indie-ttrpg-stuff

I've still not gone through the list fully again (there's 48 pages - double last time i checked!) and there's a handful of things in there i've bought separately or kickstarter which i just left in 'cause they might be of interest, but i'm slowly working on it

That’s awesome! Thank you.

This bundle reminds me of the feeling of getting my first library card — there’s just so much, there for me!

And your list reminds me of the first lessons I got in finding things in the library.

pyxistyx wrote:

I've been trying to compile and collect all of the TTRPG things added to that itch bundle (which they keep adding to!) here, for anyone interested.
https://itch.io/c/904743/indie-ttrpg-stuff

I've still not gone through the list fully again (there's 48 pages - double last time i checked!) and there's a handful of things in there i've bought separately or kickstarter which i just left in 'cause they might be of interest, but i'm slowly working on it

Updated the list with everything (currently) on the first 24 (only half!) pages of the bundle. Currently it's close to 150 games on that list.

pyxistyx wrote:
pyxistyx wrote:

I've been trying to compile and collect all of the TTRPG things added to that itch bundle (which they keep adding to!) here, for anyone interested.
https://itch.io/c/904743/indie-ttrpg-stuff

I've still not gone through the list fully again (there's 48 pages - double last time i checked!) and there's a handful of things in there i've bought separately or kickstarter which i just left in 'cause they might be of interest, but i'm slowly working on it

Updated the list with everything (currently) on the first 24 (only half!) pages of the bundle. Currently it's close to 150 games on that list.

This is great! I didn't realize Atomic Robo was in that bundle. I'm going to be sifting through these lists for months.

correction, 51 pages as of this morning

Up to 170+ entries on my collection now!

...correction. Up to page 35/51 and 230? ish games.

....CORRECTION. Up to 362-ish entries now, having gone through the rest of the list. I may have missed the odd thing here or there, and they could well add more before the deal is up, but that's the bulk of what i could find anyway!

Next step will be to split that down into sub categories (solo games, GMless, etc)

Thank you so much, Pyxistyx!

I am looking at Troika! Numinous Edition from that bundle right now, as anything involving Planes, spelljamming and science/fantasy interests me. The book describes itself as "a science-fantasy RPG in which players travel by eldritch portal and non-euclidean labyrinth and golden-sailed barge between the uncountable crystal spheres strung delicately across the hump-backed sky."

Just had to share this:

step 1 : win prize
step 2 : get deep inside the WoTC compound
step 3 : say #firemikemearls to someone of import, to their face.

Sounds like a plan!

I've been out of the loop. What happened with Mike?

long story short, going from memory.

- mike mearls is buddies with Zak S, who sexually assaulted / abused several people including his then wife.
- when this was revealed, and Zak was facing accusations from several women, MM directly sent him a list of names and contact details for his accusers.
- Huge uproar, WoTC silent, quietly shuffled MM off of social media, eventually (as in, a good year or so later) they announce that he was no longer working for the D&D group. (he was 'punished' by being moved across to work on Baldurs Gate 3 - pops up in a lot of early promo vids)
- short time later, very recently it emerges they'd snuck him BACK on to the D&D team without telling anyone and accidentally let that fact slip into a livestream. Cue general outrage and #firemikemearls hashtag.

Huh. Didn't know that. Thanks for sharing.

Good to know. I remember the Zak S stuff didn't know he was involved.

There's a petition at Change.org to get Mearls fired.