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zigmenthotep · 1 year

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Helluva-o, and welcome to Helluvan RPG, the Helluva Boss fan TTRPG that I wrote in one night because I was really excited after the new episode, using the guts of a system that I was working on anyway for a different game… which is how I did the “In one night” part.

This game requires 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12-sided dice to play, as well as writing implements and people willing to put up with each other for a number of hours.

And since this is Tumblr, I can just post the entire text of the game here. Which is good because I did not have time to put this into a PDF or anything. So whole game is below the break.

If you like what you see, make sure to share it with your friends and give me more reason to make further revisions. If you don’t like what you see… well, share it anyway, it’ll be hilarious, trust me.

Demon Creation

Ah yes, everyone’s favorite part, making your character, your own little guy through whom you can interact with the game world.

First, choose a demonic species, your options being Imp, Succubus, Baphomet, Fish Demon, and Hellhound. If you’re playing this game there’s a pretty good chance you know as much, if not more, about each of these species as I do, so I’ll skip the foreplay and get into the guts of the game.

Attributes

Characters have 5 Attributes: Strength, Agility, Awareness, Intelligence, and Moxie (just one X)

Attributes are rated with dice representing a character’s natural ability in those areas. You have 2d6, 2d8, and 1d10 to distribute between attributes.

Each species has one “Prime” attribute, whenever you make a test using your prime attribute you get to add a d4 to your attribute die. The prime attributes for each species are as follows.

Imp: Awareness

Succubus: Moxie

Baphomet: Intelligence

Fish Demon: Agility

Hellhound: Strength

I guess if you really wanted to you could also play a condemned sinner. They get 1d6, 3d8, and 1d10, but no prime attribute, and cannot leave the Pride ring.

Motivations

Characters also have 7 Motivations: Pride, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth (that’s what we in the industry call “being thematic as fuck”).

Motivations are also rated with dice representing how predisposed the character is towards each sin. You have 1d4, 2d6, 1d8, 2d10, and 1d12 to distribute between motivations.

Alternatively, if you’ve bought a bunch of those weird-sided dice and have really been looking for an excuse to use them, you can just take a fuckload of points (38 for attributes and 56 for motivations), distribute them however you fucking want, then use a d-whatever. However, if you do not have an appropriate die you must use the next size lower. And yes, this means you can put a d50 in Lust and a d1 in everything else.

Playing the Fucking Game

Alright, so I’m just going to go ahead and assume you know the basics of what a role-playing game is and how they work in the abstract, and just explain how this one works specifically. Mainly because I don’t feel like explaining all that stuff.

So as you play the game there will come points in which the outcome of your character’s action is both uncertain and meaningful. In such situations the game master will call for a test to see if your character actually can do the thing.

A test is performed by rolling the dice associated with one attribute and one motivation, and comparing the highest result of the two to the difficulty, with the following results.

Both Exceed Difficulty: Fucking awesome, everything worked out great, even greater than you indented.

One Exceeds Difficulty: Success, you did the thing you tried to do, good job sweety.

Neither Exceeds Difficulty: Failure, you did not do the thing, but at least you didn’t make things worse… or maybe you did do the thing, and are going to have to pay for it.

Rolled two 1s: You’re fucked… like, in a bad way, not only did you fail, but you actually made things considerably worse.

But which attribute and motivation to use?

Well, that is ultimately up to the game master. There are really no set combinations, just “Whatever makes sense at the time.”

For example, if you want to punch someone in their bitch-ass face, you would obviously use Wrath+Strength, but then you could also destroy someone verbally with Wrath+Moxie, or hatch a petty revenge scheme with Wrath+Intelligence. Whatever makes sense at the time.

Now given that the motivations were clearly picked for their thematic value over their functionality, it may be a little difficult to choose which one is most appropriate for which situation. So here’s some general guidelines to help you figure it out.

Pride: Motivated by your own self-importance, used when the goal is to elevate yourself or convince others of your superiority.

Greed: Motivated by desire for material wealth, used when the goal is acquiring something.

Wrath: Motivated by your anger and hatred, used when the goal is to harm someone or something.

Envy: Motivated by your disdain for someone else, used when the goal is denying or taking something from someone.

Lust: Motivated by desire for experiences, used when the goal is the acquisition of non-material wealth/power and pleasurable experiences.

Gluttony: Motivated by a desire to consume, used when the goal is the consumption or destruction of something or someone.

Sloth: Motivated by desire to not act, used when the goal is motivating others to act on your behalf or otherwise avoiding action.

And here are some more examples, specifically how each motivation could be used in a situation where a character is trying to sway someone’s attitude.

Pride+Moxie: Impress upon someone your importance and splendor

Greed+Moxie: Talk someone into giving you something

Wrath+Moxie: Intimidate someone

Envy+Movie: Turn someone against someone else

Lust+Moxie: Convince someone to fuck you, or vote for you

Gluttony+Moxie: Convince someone to work against their own self-interests

Sloth+Moxie: Convince someone to act on your behalf

And here’s the best part, you get to roll for everything. That’s right, the illusion of player-fucking-agency baby! If you're shooting at someone you roll Wrath+Awareness (or Agility, honestly I don’t care how you want to rule on the “guns use dexterity” versus “guns use perception” debate), and if someone shoots at you, you roll Envy+Agility to dodge. The enemy never gets a chance to roll a crit against you! You can still get fucked by your own roll, but now it’s your fault when that happens.

Wait, hold on, what happens if I do get shot?

Oh yeah, good question. This game doesn’t use hit points (because it’s not 1988) instead when you receive a moderate injury you get a wound die. Just for a quick reference, getting punched is not a moderate injury, getting stabbed is.

Whenever you make a test while wounded, you roll the wound die in addition to the attribute and motivation dice and discard the highest result.

Example: If your imp was making a test using their Greed of d10 and Awareness of d6+d4 (prime attribute) with a wound die of d12, and got results of 6, 9, and 4 respectively. The highest result, the 9 from their Awareness, would be removed, making the roll result 6 and 4.

Wound dice start at d12 and then move down one step with each additional wound. Once a wound die has reached d4, taking an additional wound adds a second die at d12 and discarding the two highest results.

Wounds are healed at the rate of “whenever the fuck the game master thinks is an appropriate amount of time.” But in general, characters try to avoid going out on dangerous adventures when they’re still wounded from their previous one. So usually heal up between outings.

Running the Fucking Game

Someone has to be the game master and run this game, if you’re reading this section I guess that’s you. Once again, I’m not going to go into basics, because I don’t feel like it, and only covering relevant information, as well as some basic concepts people seem to have a really hard time understanding.

When to Call for a Test

As stated earlier, a test should be called for when the results are “Both uncertain and meaningful.” It’s pretty obvious when the results are uncertain, but how do you know when they’re meaningful? Well fortunately for you that’s the kind of question you really only write into a set of rules when you have an answer for it, and that answer is: when there are significant consequences for failure.

For example, let’s say a character is angry at a video game and wants to flip a table. The results of that action are uncertain, failing to flip the table is a distinct possibility; however, the only consequence would be slight embarrassment and lack of rage release. The results of the action are ultimately meaningless, so you might as well just let them enjoy the comically over-the-top moment.

However, if they wanted to flip the same table to create a distraction while they run away because they just got caught cheating at cards, a roll would be required, because there would be significant consequences to failure: The loss of time trying to flip the table with no benefit.

Basically, only call for tests when doing so enhances the game. Like yeah, engaging with the mechanics is fun, but doing it too much can also slow things down to a crawl.

Setting the Difficulty

As mentioned earlier, an attempt is successful when the highest result exceeds the difficulty, but what is the difficulty? Well, it’s another die. That’s right, you get to roll a die for every test. But what die to roll? Well, here’s a general guide.

D4-Easy: Things that almost anyone can do without even thinking about it, only worth testing when consequences of failure would be particularly bad, and/or funny.

D6-Average: The things that take a bit of skill and effort, but aren’t exactly rocket surgery.

D8-Tricky: Things a bit more outside your comfort zone, requiring moderate skill and ability.

D10-Difficult: The sorts of things that make you go “Dang, I wasn't sure I was gonna pull through on that one.”

D12-Fuckin’ Hard: The sorts of things that you look at and just go “Oh fuck me.”

Impossible: Things that are literally impossible. Because of how the mechanics work, no roll is impossible. If you’re rolling 1d2 against a difficulty of 100d12 with 16d4 wound dice, success is unlikely, but still possible. So how do you get around that? Literally just do not have players roll for things that are impossible.

“Falling Forward”

So, what happens when a character fails? Well that’s a stupid question, the thing just doesn’t happen. I mean, that’s how it works in D&D and therefore in every other RPG right? Well let me give you a little scenario.

The characters need to break into a building, a single door in a shady alley is the only access point.

They try to pick the lock… and fail They try to break the door down… and fail There is no path for things to move forward, so the game ends and everyone goes home dissatisfied.

Now let’s try it again, but not like a fucking idiot.

The character tries to pick the lock… and fails They hear the final pin click into place and confidently turn the knob… setting off a screeching alarm.

They still failed, in that even though they succeeded in their action there were still negative consequences for that action, but those consequences were ones that made things more difficult for the characters, not placed them in a situation where there is no path forward.

Basically, whatever happens, make sure that there is never a point where failing a test brings the game to a grinding halt. And I could go on, but I literally made a whole video on this topic, so if you want a deeper discussion on defining failure meaningfully, just watch that.

And that’s about it I guess, other than don’t be a dick… or do, whatever. If you want to be the kind of person nobody wants to play with, that's really more a “you problem,” than it is a “game problem.”

Afterword

Well, that’s it For Helluvan RPG V0.1. As I said earlier, if you like it, share it around. This is a thing I created for the Helluva Boss fan community, and if I see no interest in it, I don’t really have any reason to continue working on it.

#helluva boss fandom #helluva boss #hazbin hotel #ttrpg #indie ttrpg #fan ttrpg #Helluvan RPG

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jaesreferenceblog · 1 year

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writing references

world building:

ultimate world building questionnaire

how to create a magic system in six simple steps

fantasy calendar generator

holiday name generator and holiday description generator

a fantasy language generator

literally building your world (tips on where to place cities and geographical features on maps, as well as lore-building tips)

character building:

fantasy city generator (generators details, people, businesses and inventories)

jobs for fantasy characters that aren't knight or peasant

123 ideas for character flaws

638 personality traits

150+ character mannerisms

list of personal strengths and 50 examples of strengths and weaknesses

list of common phobias

list of pet peeves

42 character development questions

writing tips:

emotion thesaurus

reverse dictionary and thesaurus and the similar tip of my tongue

cheat sheets for writing body language

a complete glossary of terms for fantasy writers (this one is pretty silly, but not completely without use)

resources for writing injuries

useful geographical descriptors for writers

more tips for combat, action, and potential injuries

tone vocabulary list

how to speed up or slow down your pacing

the 8 laws of foreshadowing

quick tips to create more conflict

other:

plot generator

1600+ one word prompts

fantasy city generator (generates a city complete with description, inhabitants, businesses and inventory. made for ttrpg but can translate to a novel)

rating the fastenings of armor based on homoerotic potential

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scottybomb · 1 year

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Ironsworn Starforged - Session 0 Part 1: Truths

As both a way to do more gaming, and also as a sort of writing exercise, I’ve picked up Ironsworn Starforged. For those unfamiliar, the original Ironsworn is a solo TTRPG experience. It’s also available, right now, for free! Ironsworn Starforged is the same thing, just IN SPAAAAAAACE! I do love a good space adventure, and it seemed a good fit for me. As I settled in to start, I realized I didn’t want to do this in private... I kind of want to do this in more public way. So I’ve decided to post my sessions here on Tumblr. So, let’s begin our session zero! The first thing you need to do, when starting an Ironsworn adventure (Starforged or otherwise) is to establish the Truths of your campaign. You do this by determining facts about your particular version of the setting - a section of a nearby galaxy we humans call the Forge. There are 14 categories which we need to establish truths about, and this can be done by either rolling on the tables in the book, choosing from the list, or coming up with your own. For this game (my first game) I’ll be randomly rolling, and hoping we come up with something coherent. Below I’ll post the categories, what my roll came up with, and then my thoughts working through the roll as we fit all these pieces together into our setting. It’s pretty stream of consciousness at this juncture, so bear with me if it’s a bit disjointed. Cataclysm We escaped the ravages of a catastrophic war against Artificial Intelligence. The catastrophic war was the first result, and we came up with enemy AIs in the sub-table. Classic reason to need to escape our galaxy - in our hubris, we created a powerful sentient AI who saw us as an existential threat and began a quest to exterminate us. I think I like the idea that we escaped at the height of the conflict and don’t know the ultimate fate of humanity in the Milky Way. We only know the threat can’t follow us here, and we’ve needed to start a new life in the Forge. Exodus A ragtag fleet of ships - propelled at tremendous speeds by experimental FTL drives - carried our ancestors to the Forge. But the technology that powered the ships is said to be the source of the Sundering, a fracturing of reality that plagues us here today. Eidolon drives (the base FTL drive of the setting) were commonplace back home, during the Golden Age, before the AI war. But e-drives utilize gravity wells to drift between systems, and the blackness of intergalactic space is a void which cannot be traversed. Powerful interdimensional FTL drives - wormhole generators, essentially - were used to crack the space between dimensions and propel us into the Forge and safety. The path of egress remains a rift in space-time - presumably, a rift also exists where we first engaged the drive. I think the rift is slowly growing, but not at a notable rate - I don’t want the setting to be in any sort of immediate existential risk. Strange, interdimensional energies seep through, though, which could account for strange and supernatural things determined by later rolls. Communities Dangers abound, but there is safety in numbers. Many ships and settlements are united under the banner of one of the five Founder Clans. Okay, so the five original FTL ships made planetfall on vital worlds within the Terminus, founding the original human colonies. Eventually, these five powerful worlds factionalized into neo-feudal states, each vying for control of the fate of humanity - they became the Founder Clans. I like this - factions can make for fun storytelling. Iron The Ironsworn bind their honour to their blades. This is a very interesting roll to me, as it indicates honour is of great importance to the people of the Forge. Blades are also super important - I like the idea of swordsmanship getting a resurgence from the danger of using a firearm in a spaceship or orbital habitat. I’m starting to re-contextualize the Founder Clans as a bit L5R-ish? A strong sense of honour and decorum permeates the upper classes, and something akin to a katana has a special social significance. These special blades are the mark of the nobility, a symbol of their honour, and an oath sworn on them is considered sacrosanct. To abandon such a vow is to accept terrible dishonour. This trend has also trickled down to the lower classes - while they don’t have these swords which mark them as nobility, the masses see any oath sworn on a blade as effectively sacred. Laws Our communities are bound under the terms of the Covenant, a charter established after the Exodus. The organization called the Keepers is sworn to uphold those laws. Ooh, I like this. The Founder Clans hold to a common law - the Covenant - as set down by the founders after the Exodus. It explains why there’s a common structure to the culture in the Forge - Clan culture. There are absolutely differences among the Clans, and even then between noble families, planets, or regions - but overall Clan culture dominates. Keepers are a unique social construct - an order of peacekeepers and arbitrators who can act across Clan boundaries to maintain Covenant law. To be a Keeper, one must forsake their Clan affiliation, and swear vows binding them to uphold Covenant law. Commoners can’t normally become Keepers - only those with blades are believed to have the honour necessary for the role - but I think maybe occasional exceptions are made by individual Keepers who take on squires or apprentices. Many Keepers are noble children who didn’t stand to inherit much. It’s considered an honourable choice of path. I think there is corruption in the organization, but it isn’t widespread, and the Keepers try to police themselves as best they can. They travel the Forge, playing a key role in maintaining order among the Clans. The Clans are sworn to abide by their judgement - but the Clans also like to keep them at arms length because they can get away with stuff when the Keepers aren’t watching. Religion Our faith is as diverse as our people. Makes sense. Old Earth religions survived the Exodus and are still practiced. New religions have evolved as society has transformed - I like the suggestion that new age beliefs in Precursor faiths have arisen. I don’t think the Clans are in anyway delineated by faith - I think smaller denominations of all major religions are present across Clan lines. Perhaps some of the nobility in the Clans have a sort of ancestor veneration, or perhaps even outright worship the original Founders? This roll makes religion a presence in our version of the Forge, but not necessarily the focus, and I’m okay with that. Magic Magic does not exist. I was kind of hoping for a bit of magic, but I’m cool with this. I like the idea that there are still strange powers and phenomena, but it’s understood that it isn’t magic - it's just alien or extradimensional energies we barely-, or misunderstand. I don’t know that anyone’s throwing fireballs, but it allows for people with strange abilities, and the possibility of Horrors later on down the road. We already know the Sundering has allowed strange energies into our universe, after all. Like the Religion result above, I feel this mostly means that superpowers aren’t going to be a focus in this campaign. No Jedi, but maybe the occasional psychic? Communication and Data Much was lost when we came to the Forge. It is a dark age. The Clans are constantly jockeying for position, and one of those edges is with knowledge and technology. As the major Clan families jealously control information to help maintain their power, the masses are often under-, or outright uneducated. Society has regressed to neo-feudalism. Common people use machines but they usually don’t really understand how they work, or how to fix them. I think a middle class of technicians and mechanics has arisen, who bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots. New, sleek, high technology is reserved for the rich and powerful within the Clans. Rusty, refurbished and used tech is for the masses. Space-travel itself is probably out of the reach of most humans in the Forge, who live out their entirety of their lives in a single community on a single world. In far-flung outposts and colonies, especially in the Outlands or the Expanse, people may only hear about major news years later - if at all. Medicine To help offset a scarcity of medical supplies and knowledge, the resourceful technicians we call riggers create basic organ and limb replacements This tracks with the last result quite well! As advanced medical tech would be a luxury of the Clan nobility, most people have to make do. That middle class of technicians includes the riggers, who supplement limited or primitive medical expertise with cybernetics. I’m thinking cybernetics is common in The Forge - but just as importantly, it’s a mark of the lower classes. Clan nobles don’t DO cybernetics, and it would be a mark of shame on them and their honour to have machine parts. Nobles may still engage in physical or mental enhancements, mind you - they’d just rely on more elegant biotech or genetic engineering, as that would be available to them. Artificial Intelligence Artificial consciousness emerged in the time before the Exodus, and sentient machines live with us here in the Forge. Now THIS is an interesting roll. The people of the Forge escaped a robot uprising but still widely use and accept the use of advanced, sentient AI? Okay… so… what if AI wasn’t only an existential threat to humankind, it’s also responsible for saving us? The Exodus ships, and the experimental FTL drive? Those were designed by superintelligences which were sympathetic to humans, and sought to ensure our survival. The five Clan founders? They’re the five AI’s which ran the original colony ships! Powerful AIs run the Clans, which are each named for their AI Founder. The noble families which serve them are the descendants of the original technicians and commanders of the ships. Other sentient machines serve in numerous roles throughout the Forge, but mostly in service to Clan nobles. Still, many older AIs serve in menial roles among the masses. War War never ends. Talented weaponsmiths and shipwrights craft deadly, high-tech tools of destruction. Dominant factions wield mighty fleets and battle-hardened troops. This is getting VERY L5R on me. After establishing the common law of the Covenant to ensure the original five colonies would share common values and culture, the Founders had a falling out over the future of the Forge. This is what led to the factionalization of the Clans. Eventually, conflict was inevitable. I think the wars between the Clans are highly structured affairs of honour, according to rules established in the Covenant. This is the other reason the Keepers were founded and given authority by all of the clans - they are often called in to ensure those wars are being fought honourably. The Founder AIs are always scheming against each other, even when they aren’t in outright conflict. Even internally, major noble families within the Clans are often in conflict as they seek to better their own positions internally. Subterfuge and intrigue are rife. It has probably been generations since there’s been a single day of outright peace in the Forge. Lifeforms This is a perilous and often inhospitable galaxy, but life finds a way. I’m okay with this roll - pretty standard stuff. The Forge teems with life on countless worlds. Many Earth animals were saved by the Exodus ships and thrive today in new environments. New creatures have been discovered and domesticated by colonists. Indeed, animal husbandry would be necessary and common among the masses. While they have access to older machines, and even robot assistance, access to better technology is more limited so a reliance on beasts of burden makes sense to me. Precursors Over eons, a vast number of civilizations rose and fell within the Forge. Today, the folks we call grubs - scavenger crews and audacious explorers - delve into the mysterious monuments and ruins of the ancient beings. I kind of like the nebulousness of this roll, as it lets me do what I want with the Precursors, or even have many different Precursor civilizations. I also like the idea that an underclass of scavengers has arisen. This actually fits really well, I think. The Founder AIs would have a vested interest in jealously claiming and hoarding Precursor knowledge and technology, as it could be the key to giving them an edge over their rivals. Clan nobles, therefore, are at the forefront of any official expedition when a major find is made. But those who make independent discoveries can peddle that for big rewards from the Clans - including a place amongst the nobility! It’s one of the few areas of true social mobility in the Forge, and that makes it very tempting for someone who discovers a vault to risk the danger inherent in exploring it. The Founder AIs quietly allow for independent grubs to trawl through newly discovered vaults first, because these initial forays often make later official expeditions by Clan nobility safer. More risk adverse grubs also scrounge older vaults and ruins, looking for anything which may have been left undiscovered, once the Clan expeditions pull out and move on. It’s safer, but far less lucrative as the treasures have mostly been picked over. Horrors Most insist that horrors aren’t real. Spacers know the truth. Okay, so extradimensional energies unleashed by the Sundering. Ghosts, undead, horrific mutants, and strange beings are the results of those energies. The Exodus left its mark. Hell, lets go a little more L5R/WH40K here and say the hellish heart of the Sundering is, basically, the Shadowlands/Eye of Chaos - a horrific intermingling of this dimension and another, nightmarish realm. Travel there is officially forbidden - it’s one of the laws set down in the Covenant. The few drifts which exist to the Sundering are policed by both the Clans and the Keepers... and they don’t do it to necessarily keep people out, but rather, it’s said, to keep things IN. Those who do manage to reach the heart of the Sundering either don’t return… or return wrong. Even outside the dark heart of the Sundering, in thin places, like the pale light of a white dwarf star, these corrupting interdimensional energies seep through. There are horrors in the depths of space. This is the price we paid to escape the cataclysmic AI war we unleashed upon ourselves. There we go! We’ve established our truths, and in doing so have also developed the start of a pretty interesting setting, I’d say. A neo-feudal society of feuding Clans, run by superintelligent AIs? Rad! A hellish fracture in reality which occasionally disgorges extradimensional terrors? Neat! I can already tell the focus of this campaign might skew towards the politics and conflicts between the Clans. I’m kind of eager to start flying around this setting having adventures! Next time, we’ll birth a character into this version of the Forge, and get to know them!

#ironsworn #starforged #ttrpg #truths #world building

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momentary-ecstasy · 4 years

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Digital Tabletop RPG Reference

I know the vast majority of the world is being encouraged to stay home. It can be a struggle at time to isolate yourself in such a way and I know that a lot of Tabletop RPG groups have had to call a hiatus or move online. If you’re one of these people or you’re just looking to get into tabletop RPGs at this time, I’ve created a post of all the free and cheap things I can think of to get you started.

Platforms

Roll20 - Roll20 is a platform with free and paid tier subscriptions. With the free subscription you can run games easily, import maps, create campaigns, and share sources you already have. All combat and movement views are top-down. The only drawbacks is if you would like to use the embedded resources in your games the source material can be a little pricey, but if you use it in conjunction with dndbeyond or just your paper materials it’s easy enough to accomplish

Tabletop Simulator - Tabletop Simulator is exactly how it sounds. It’s a virtual tabletop to play, not just RPGs, but generally any kind of tabletop game you can think of. There are extensive asset packs in the workshop to use with TTRPGs, as well as packs that allow you to play games like Betrayal at House on Haunted Hill and Gloomhaven which are pretty expensive irl. Tabletop Simulator is in the steam store right now for about $20. Unfortunately everyone in your group needs to have it in order to play. A workaround one of my groups found is for someone (usually the DM) to have it up and screenshare over discord.

Fantasy Grounds - Full disclosure, I haven’t used Fantasy Grounds personally. It’s just the things that usually comes up when looking for ways to play online. It does look easy to use and right now they’re having a sale. The demo version is free but only allowed 1 player and 1 GM. The standard edition is currently on sale for $9.75 for the year and the Ultimate edition for $89.40.

Astral Tabletop - Another online web app to play campaigns through. I don’t know much about it, but the important bit is that all paid features are free until April. It supports motion maps which is super nice for the GMs that want something extra.

Source Materials

Source materials are generally the most costly part of a campaign. I’ve tried to find the cheapest, quality TTRPGs materials possible.

Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

Wizards of the Coast has the core rules on their site for free so you can get started without all the costs of books and supplements

dndbeyond - dndbeyond offers all 5e source material as well as tools for created and running a campaign. If someone in your party has a DM tier subscription, only one person has to buy the materials on the site and create a campaign to share with everyone else. Digitally the books are fairly cheap with the Player’s Handbook and the Dungeon Master Guide coming in at $30 each. Even if you don’t buy the materials from dndbeyond, the character sheet creator is absolutely worth the free account

Roll20 - the 5e content on roll20 is a little pricey, but if you decide to use roll20 for your campaign, this does make it easier to add loot and other equipment directly into the maps

Fate

Fate may be new to a lot of people, but it is the blankest of slates when it comes to TTRPGs. It can be adapted into any kind of established or homebrew world you can think of.

Evil Hat Productions is the publisher of Fate and has PDF versions of all of their TTRPG games. The Fate Accelerated Edition (a condensed version of Fate Core) is free in pdf form with a suggested pay-what-you-like rate of $2.50. The more in depth Fate Core System is free in pdf form with a suggested pay-what-you-like rate of $5. There are also various toolkits on the on their site to help you adapt Fate to the setting of your choice.

Roll20 does a little better with pricing when it comes to FATE with the Fate Complete Bundle coming in at $20

Monster Hearts 2

Monster Hearts is a supernatural coming-of-age RPG as seen on Critical Role. It has a very simple rule set based on the Apocalypse World engine. It is available on the creator’s website for $10 with a discount code in the description for people who can’t afford that at this time. While you’re there check out The Quiet Year, a post-apocalyptic map game that only requires a deck of cards to play, available for pay-what-you-like.

Call of Cthulhu

A horror RPG set in the 1920s based on the works of the problematic progenitor of modern horror, HP Lovecraft.

Chaosium, who publishes CoC, has the Starter Set PDF for $9.99. This includes basic rules, a solo adventure, 5 character sheets, and 2 adventures for a Keeper (the GM), and their players. I have personally played the solo adventure and highly recommend it to get you familiar with the rules if CoC is what you’re looking at. the Keeper Rulebook ($27.95) and Investiator Handbook ($22.95) are both available in PDF forms on their site.

Roll20 also has a lot of CoC content that can be integrated into character sheets and actual gameplay on Roll20

Misc Resources

Maps - You can get free RPG maps at the r/dndmaps subreddit where users post their battle and realm maps creations. 2 Minute Tabletop also has a free section.

Dice Rollers - If you don’t have dice and don’t want to risk ordering them or going to find some right now there are several online dice rollers like the Wizards of the Coast dice roller and the embedded dice roller if you google ‘dice roller’. Most virtual RPG platforms have virtual dice rolling as well.

Minis - If you go the Tabletop Simulator route, you can import your own miniatures that you can render yourself or get from sites like thingiverse and myminifactory. They do have to be converted to obj files to import to Tabletop Simulator, but that can be done with a free program like blender.

Modules - If you want pre-made or homebrew adventures, items, and classes, check out DM’s Guild for Dungeons and Dragons and DriveThruRPG for all other systems

I will probably add more systems later, but this should be enough to get you started or at least point you in the right direction to start your quarantined tabletop adventures.

#long post #rpgs #ttrpg #d&d #fate core #monster hearts #coc

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maddie-kungs-emporium · 2 years

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5th Edition: My Thoughts After All This Time In the Sun

So, I love tabletop roleplaying. I actually have to pace myself or else I might overindulge, which comes as a surprise to a lot of people who are learning about me for the first time. Like a lot of gamers, I started with 5th Edition D&D, which is fine, and I loved it initially, and to some degree, still love it now. That being said, I have some things to say about it, some positive, some negative, and some just my thoughts.

But first, to those who don’t know about or haven’t tried new systems: Listen to me first

So, I’m gonna be real: Not everyone’s hobby who plays D&D is TTRPGs. Only playing D&D is fine. If you don’t want to play something other than D&D, that’s fine. If you’re being shamed either for wanting to do something other than D&D or wanting to stay in your comfort zone, that’s bad and a sign the people you play with don’t respect you. This is entertainment and should be treated as such.

That being said, there are several common reasons people give for not wanting to learn new TTRPG systems other than D&D, and I think most of them that aren’t “I’m just not that interested” suck.

The best analogy for this is to think about a tabletop roleplaying game not just as a game, but as a collection of systems to build your own experience. Some of these systems will work better with different ideas. 5e has good systems for some things and bad systems for others. In order to get the best experience, ultimately you have to experiment and find what works. It’s a skill, and one that requires multiple perspectives to truly master.

Also, not every non-5e game has complex systems. Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA for short) is as simple as rolling 2d6 and getting one of three outcomes, and there are some that are just as easy. Hell, you can make your own system if you understand the basics of how TTRPG mechanics work, one that suits your tastes, and it’s honestly not that hard at all. Just get the basics of how you roll dice down and branch out from there, everything else is just more branches.

What about the ideas behind 5e’s core principles? What are your thoughts on those?

So, here’s my opinion on 5e boiled down into one complete sentence: It’s a system like any other, and it should be treated as such.

5e does something not a lot of media can do: it is modular. 5e changes based on who is playing it and why, but still fits a general aesthetic an audience can expect. This seems easy, but it is actually extremely difficult to do this. George Lucas did it. Stan Lee did it. Not many other people have tried and succeeded at creating a fully modular universe, one in which other creators can successfully act within the internal logic and ethos of a media universe without compromising what makes it fun. That makes 5e stand above most of its competitors in terms of potential- but the doesn’t make it good for everything.

I have read several 5e hacks for non-fantasy settings, everything from a modern day spy thriller to a science fiction setting. I can say with confidence they’re most likely all mediocre, and would get about a 4-5 based on my own rating system. The thing about 5e is that it is ultimately designed for a very specific type of experience even if the actual details of the setting and themes can change significantly. That experience can roughly be boiled down to a sort of “MCU-type structure”.

See, what 5e excels at is accessibility. Most stories told with the 5e system will fit the same kind of mold, the kind that isn’t particularly challenging to understand, and that’s the point. At the end of the day, 5e promises the experience of quirky adventurers going on zany adventures and solving some problems, and that’s it. That’s okay, and I like that sometimes. I just like other things too.

#d&d #ttrpg #5e

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aquieterkindofplace · 6 years

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April TTRPG Maker - Day 6!

Favorite game mechanic?

Oh, hello there. Today is the day I get to tell you all about how much I love Jared Sorenson’s Lacuna Part I: The Creation of the Mystery and the Girl From Blue City.

From the bottom of my heart, I absolutely adore Lacuna. I picked it up on a whim several years ago and I’ve played multiple games of it ever since. It’s a game oozing with style and charm, and its procedural nature makes it perfect for one-shots. Quite frankly, it’s a game that cannot be missed.

Part of what makes it cool is its Heart Rate system.

In Lacuna, you play Mystery Agents who work for the Company, a quasi-legal, extreme covert organization dedicated to entering the Blue City, the de-facto collective consciousness of humanity, and finding and eliminating violent impulses in convicted criminals. There’s a lot more to it than that, but that’s the main hook: it’s Inception by way of The Cell.

Since Mystery Agents are essentially dreaming as they do their work, a simple HP or Health system wouldn’t make much sense here. So instead, risk management and harm foreshadowing comes in the form of Heart Rate. Characters have starting a Target Heart Rate and a Max Heart Rate determined by their character’s age, and a Resting Heart Rate as determined by the birth-assigned sex of the character. By default, a character’s birth-assigned sex is determined by “the gender of the player.” I’ve never been a huge fan of that last bit, and in the ten or so years since the game’s development, I wouldn’t say it aged well. When I run Lacuna, I usually leave sex and gender up to the player, and let them choose what resting heart rate they want to start out with. Ultimately it’s a choice between 70 BPM and 75 BPM, and in play it doesn’t change all that much.

Heart Rate in play is very simple, and ties in with the game’s task resolution system:

1. Players always roll a dice pool of d6es based on Attributes and Talents, and aim to get a total of 11 or higher from the roll for a success.

2. Players can always, always re-roll after a failure.

3. After every single roll, the total sum of the dice pool is added to the character’s Heart Rate, regardless of success, failure, or how many times they’ve attempted the action.

4. When a player hits their Target Heart Rate, they may roll for almost any task with as many dice as they could want, period.

5. Once a character hits their Maximum Heart Rate or higher, any failure reduces a stat by 1. If any stat hits 0, they must succeed a roll to exit the Blue City or die. On the bright side, the player is back to only being able to roll with their Attributes and Talents.

It’s a wonderfully elegant system for a number of reasons. It encourages high risk for high reward, in a way that shows off the strange, inherent danger of the setting. It makes missions a race against the clock, one where players are applying the pressure on themselves. It makes failure more inviting to a player, especially in the early game, as players want to try to hit their target heart rate. It’s also a very handy pace signal to the GM. If someone’s reaching their Max Heart Rate, it’s time to start bringing the session to a climax.

It’s a neat little mechanic in a wonderful game. While I certainly have my crits and houserules to the game, Lacuna is a very slick little piece of game design in general. It’s absolutely influential on my work, and one day I can only hope to create something a rule book that’s as immersive and fun to read as it is to play, like the Lacuna rulebook is.

#quiet personals #AprilTTRPGMaker

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