ostrichmonkey-games

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Have you played AFTER THE RAIN : The Roleplaying Game ?

by Kyle Ott

What do you want most? What would you lose to get it?

Those are the questions you will have to answer while playing After the Rain, a one shot roleplaying game for 3-6 players. After the Rain casts you and your friends as desperate individuals bound together in pursuit of a shared goal. Standing in your way is The Rain.

The longer you are exposed to The Rain the more you will lose your memories, experiences, and the things that make you who you are. As the game progresses, you’ll be forced to change. Will you crumble without your past experiences or adapt to the loss of your memories and embrace the new person you must become ?

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Been thinking about Gubat Banwa and its very elevation-centric combat system. Had an idea and no impulse control, so now I have this. I think this might make visualising the situation a lot easier and its modularity should help speed up setup.

Have yet to test it in actual combat, but we'll see!

[ostrichmonkey-games]

i really badly wanna make this game have like, grainy, shitty, black and white photocopied pictures, and I think for weird shit like this it would work really well

#super loving all these snippets youve been sharing

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Happy Birthday to me, buy my games

It's my birthday this week! To celebrate, I put basically everything (that isn't already part of a bundle) on sale. Wahoo!

I might be biased, but I think there's some very cool stuff you can pick up.

If you've been enjoying my sneak previews of Stampede Wasteland, you'll probably want to check out DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE, which is in many ways a mechanical precursor to what's going on in Stampede. Also, its got a megastructure.

There's also Into the Riverlands, a system-neutral setting zine chock full of flavor. Some of which you can see here.

Or, maybe you want something a little more experimental. Then check out Fractal Romance's expansion, Velvet Fragments, which includes a whole new set of playbooks for exploring the Fractal Palace with. (There's a decent change you might already own Fractal Romance, it's been in some big bundles).

Check out the whole sale here!

[ostrichmonkey-games]

The Skunk Ape from To Embrace a Swamp Creature

“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;”

W.B. Yeats – The Second Coming

The Skunk Ape is definitely a "deeper than you might first think" playbook. I also think they're a good balance to the kinds of conflict over playbooks might get involved in.

(The picklist of late night rituals also feels like such a snapshot of random things on my mind at the time of writing)

You can buy To Embrace a Swamp Creature digitally on Itch or physically at the new Rat Wave Webstore

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Street Wolves: Turbo Edition is ending soon on Kickstarter!

It's the rad Savage Worlds setting feature agents on the edge fighting evil in the neon shadows of an alternate 1980s.

It's been a dream of mine to get Street Wolves into print and this campaign will not only allow me to do that, but I can also replace stock art I wasn't super into! There's 40+ of new art coming!

Other cool stuff includes a couple adventures, a full on campaign, and custom music. It's pretty much the perfect version of the setting and I've excited to be able to make it happen.

So please check it out on Kickstarter if it sounds cool to you!

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Gardens of Ynn KS Update!

An Online Generator, Gorgeous New Art and FAQs about Stygian...

Some of you may remember David Schirduan of Technical Grimoire’s Stygian Library generator that we did during the last project. Here’s a link. 

David has kindly offered to make another generator for Ynn. We’re paying him to do this, and then port both of them over to the SoulMuppet website. This will be available for free online for everyone to use (although it will make more sense if you own the book). 

We have also completed the first draft of layout and you can see a bunch more new art in situ. This is great work from Mina and Bones and I’m loving how this is coming together.  

Stygian Library Reprint

We’ve had some questions from backers about the reprint of Stygian Library. A few clarifications: 

First, we won’t be updating the layout at all. We’re very happy with it. 

Second, we will fix typos in the book before we go to print. If you are aware of any typos in the book please email them to [email protected] and I’ll get them fixed before we go to print. 

Thirdly, we’ve only got about 300 of the old black and silver covers left, and we’ll keep selling them as legacy stock on the store. If you would prefer one, we’ll include them as an add-on on BackerKit. 

Play By Poll by Mol 

Mol is doing a Play by Post of the Gardens of Ynn on SoulMuppet Tumblr and Twitter.

Read along to see what happened so far, then join in by voting upon the threads, and we'll see how this all together doomed expedition fails. 

Thanks again for your support and please keep sharing!

[ostrichmonkey-games]

my wife’s game, stewpot, is finally crowdfunding today!!

it’s an incredible game about adventurers settling down and starting a tavern. if you have been enjoying dungeon meshi this is a game for you!

[ostrichmonkey-games]

sometimes I struggle to come up with example names, and other times I know exactly what a corporate biohacker would name themselves

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Time to check in at the No-Tell Motel

My new single-player TTRPG, No-Tell Motel, is now available! Come on over and grab a PDF, or throw in $5 more to pre-order your physical copy.

In No-Tell Motel, you play the overnight clerk at a sleazy motel. One of your guests murders another one, and no one much seems to care who did it or why. No one but you, that is.

Playing the game only requires a standard deck of playing cards and a six-sided die. You use the face cards to identify your motel's regular guests (yes, the book comes ready with 16), and the numbers cards to randomly generate things that happen between them.

And unlike most build-as-you-go mystery games, you can make your best guess and still get it very, very wrong.

The nightly spread of the game looks a bit like a hand of Solitaire, and that's on purpose. I wanted playing the game to feel a little bit like something you'd do to pass the time in the small hours of the morning.

Here's how it works.

The rules generate different murder victims and methods, a highly randomized yet still coherent matrix of guest gossip, actions and conflict, and most importantly: a way to find out if your accusation was correct, and what the consequences are for pointing the finger.

If you like pulp crime, The Conversation, or Errol Morris's Tabloid, you should check out No-Tell Motel.

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Happy Birthday to me, buy my games

It's my birthday this week! To celebrate, I put basically everything (that isn't already part of a bundle) on sale. Wahoo!

I might be biased, but I think there's some very cool stuff you can pick up.

If you've been enjoying my sneak previews of Stampede Wasteland, you'll probably want to check out DEATHGRIND!!MEGASTRUCTURE, which is in many ways a mechanical precursor to what's going on in Stampede. Also, its got a megastructure.

There's also Into the Riverlands, a system-neutral setting zine chock full of flavor. Some of which you can see here.

Or, maybe you want something a little more experimental. Then check out Fractal Romance's expansion, Velvet Fragments, which includes a whole new set of playbooks for exploring the Fractal Palace with. (There's a decent change you might already own Fractal Romance, it's been in some big bundles).

Check out the whole sale here!

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg

[ostrichmonkey-games]

guess who made a wargame with thirteen thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine unit statblocks

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Hey hey, first release of my vampire hookup TTRPG, it's not perfectly balanced yet but it's getting there 😊

Thanks @codaattheend and many friends for helping me playtest it <3

[ostrichmonkey-games]

i just saw your post about the cataphract- the stat blocks are unreliably narrated? can you say more about that, that sounds incredibly fascinating-

Thanks for asking! So the game I'm writing is a diagetic document, it's written by the in-universe equivalent of a KGB agent. It's a rulebook, but it's also a piece of propaganda.

With regards to the Cataphracts, the unreliability comes in the flavor descriptions between the "good" fantasy USSR/Parthia stat blocks and the "evil" fantasy America/Vatican stat blocks. For example, compare Motivations of the Gadan Cataphracts to the Khajen Hussars:

Cataphracts- "Smash through the cowards who would raise their arms against Gada, hold the line until their final breaths" Hussars- "Show off, trample the common man, seduce impressionable youths with heroic lies."

They're both a heavy cavalry unit in imperial armies, but you can tell the author has a bias. The effect I hope this has will be to convey the tone of the book, ie, this was written by someone with an agenda. But because the flavor text is biased, I hope it'll get readers to consider that maybe the bad guys aren't so cowardly, and the good guys aren't as tough as they're made out to be, and encourage readers to mess with the stat blocks as a result.

#love this

[ostrichmonkey-games]

howdy all!!

some of you may remember that i had top surgery back in january of this year. the sale i had to raise money for it was hugely helpful, and i thank all of yall so much for your support with that

unfortunately i didnt have a lot of time between when i was able to schedule the surgery to when the surgery took place to raise money and i ended up about ... $7000 short ... i was able to get the surgery and its been absolutely wonderful and life changing, truly a decade and a half long dream come true, but im now several thousand dollars in debt and thats been hanging over my head in a big way

so ... im hosting a jam!! submissions to the jam will be put in a bundle and proceeds from the bundle will go towards paying off the debt. which means any submissions would be a charitable donation and i will be so so so grateful for them

the jam is gonna go for a few weeks (till may 10th) and then the bundle will run until my birthday on june 14th :o) helping to get some of this paid off will be such a good birthday present

more details on the jam page. spreading the word is soooo appreciated!!!

[ostrichmonkey-games]

i have been waiting all game to write the cataphracts

i hope at this point the reader realizes the stat blocks are perhaps unreliably narrated

#so pumped for this

[ostrichmonkey-games]

The Devil — What motifs or mechanics do you just keep coming back to?

people love to tease me about my recurring motifs (campfires, moss, beautiful insects, wolves) to the point that im willing to bet luke was thinking about me in particular when they put this question on the ask meme

a mechanic i do find myself continuously coming back to that ive yet to find a home for is this one, where you ask someone for comfort and if they provide it to you, you kill them, which ill show me using in 3 different RPG design ideas:

i think the idea of leading questions where the answer you want to provide is also mechanically punished is REALLY interesting to me!! its a flip of a lot of normal seduction moves — youre setting yourself up in a certain way and all-but-begging the other person to give in, even if they know youre dangerous