#forged in the dark

[theresattrpgforthat]

@martianworder asked me about this on my Forged in the Dark post, so here we go!

Clocks

So Clocks have been a tool that have been used before and outside of Blades in the Dark, but BitD was where I think they were made really popular.

Golem Clocks designed by cmartins on Itch.io

For all intents and purposes, a Clock is just a track that you fill, but in some cases it's preferred over a track because it fills less space, and it's easy to just draw a clock on a piece of paper to help you keep track of something as you play.

A Clock can be more than just a track. It can be a countdown, a timer, or a representation of a person or faction's goals. The larger the Clock, the bigger task it is. Here are some examples of how you could use them.

A Healing project clock from Blades in the Dark.

A player could have a project Clock that they fill over the course of many sessions. Perhaps they want to research a cure for a vampire virus that is threatening a loved one. The GM would ask them to make a research roll every downtime, and how successful they are indicates how many slices they fill - effectively, how much progress they make towards finding a cure.

Rebellion and Sedition Clocks for Brinkwood: Blood of Tyrants.

A play group might use a Clock to track a common goal, such as winning over a number of anarchists to help take down a mega-corporation. If this is a campaign-long goal, you might use a series of linked clocks to represent the jailbreak you need to assist before you can win over a computer hacker, and then the massive hacking project you need to support before you can overwhelm the corpo servers.

Faction Clocks from Scum & Villainy.

A GM might use a Clock to track the work a Faction makes towards their goal. Every downtime section, they GM might roll to see how successful the Faction is, or simply tick one slice of the clock if the Faction has no reason not to be able to do what they want. If the Faction is allowed to work unimpeded by the PC's, they might eventually do something that changes the world around them, for better or worse.

Mission Clock from External Containment Bureau and Doomsday Clock from Apocalypse Keys.

Clocks might also be used as a timer, to indicate when something terrible might happen, or when the group's time is up. This might be the amount of time before a murderer next strikes, before the haunted house claims another victim, or before the world begins to end. In some games, specific points in the clock (such as halfway, or a quarter of the way through) may trigger special events that give the PC's more information, or remind the group that the pressure is really on.

Clocks for Protect the Child.

All in all, Clocks are a great visual tool to help you and your game group keep track of what's going on in the fiction, and it can also help you keep track of a number of narrative threads in a fairly condensed space. Even if they're not built into the game you're currently running or playing, I think they're a fairly easy addition, and can certainly help with bookkeeping!

#mint speaks #clocks #forged in the dark #indie ttrpgs #dnd #tabletop games #asks

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played MOST TRUSTED ADVISORS ?

By W.S. Healed & Citizen Abel / The Horizon Machine @thehorizonmachine

In Most Trusted Advisors, you’ll play as a profoundly incompetent monarch’s eponymous privy council. As lords and ladies of the realm, you’ll be tasked with keeping your liege safe from foreign agents, court conspiracies, and their most dangerous enemy: their own incompetence.

One player will take the role of your liege, responsible for telling you about the disasters your characters must deal with as well as the Misfortunes that befall them when they fail. The rest of you will pick up one of six playbooks and play scheming, petty, self-interested nobles. You’ll try desperately to keep your liege alive, stay in their good graces, and keep the story unpredictable by introducing Twists.

Together, you’ll tell a story of self-interested aristocrats getting themselves into trouble by being selfish, malevolent, incompetent, or all of the above. Play to find out if your lords and ladies can keep their liege in good health and their heads on their bodies, or if they’ll be crushed under the weight of their own schemes.

#ttrpg #tabletop rpg #poll #poll time #indie ttrpg #2020s #indie rpg #most trusted advisors #forged in the dark #fitd

[austinramsaygames]

The first campaign module for Beam Saber, Stardost Memento, is now live featuring great cover art by @bfleuter! Join the Jovangellian Resistance as they make one final desperate strike at the Norrish conquerors:

**OPERATION MEMENTO**

#beam saber #ttrpg #indie ttrpg #mecha #forged in the dark #mechs #campaign module

[bottomlesssarcophagusstudio]

AFTERBIRTH OF THE SHADOW KING (2023) Sci-Fi/Post-Apocalyptic Horror Expansion by Rowan A. for Austin Ramsay's FitD mecha game Beam Saber.

WRITING, LAYOUT, ILLUSTRATION

#tabletop rpg #ttrpg #beam saber #forged in the dark #mecha rpg #post apocalyptic #indie ttrpg #ttrpg art #zine #zine layout #itch.io

[cassimothwin]

Court of Blades is a tabletop RPG that takes place in a fantasy renaissance city-state populated by scheming nobles, court magicians, and dashing duelists.

Explore how players manage intrigues, scandals, reputations, connections and more in my flip through!

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #tabletop role playing games #forged in the dark #Youtube

[public-trans-it]

This is a fucking BEAUTIFUL example of what makes Flashbacks such a good mechanic, and also why free flashbacks are important to have.

#friends at the table #fatt #fitd #forged in the dark

[dungeonofthedragon]

The Voidwalkers Have Arrived!

Today is the day, folks! Voidwalkers enter the Void to keep humanity safe in a barren post-apocalyptic world.

They will be forever changed by their experiences.

You can grab a copy of Voidwalkers for a special $1.99 price at the below link:

#voidwalkers #forged in the dark #pocketquest2024

[thehorizonmachine]

MOST TRUSTED ADVISORS

Hark, ye partakers of games! Indulge in the merry vice of dice-playing with this comic production, freshly available on itch.io: a game of secretive backstabbing and feudal intrigue about being the disloyal privy council to a hapless monarch, crafted by the finest computer artisans to be perfect for light-hearted, madcap one-shots!

There is nary a heroic act to be documented within these pages. In Most Trusted Advisors, you'll one-up your friends' plans with Twists and buy their credulity with Ducats as you compete for your feudal lord's approval. Poison and murder your enemies as the loathsome Blackguard, start duels and wars as the boisterous Marshal, or pick one of four other dastardly playbooks with which to accomplish your wicked schemes.

We have consulted with scholars of repute so as to proudly confirm that this tome provides no education whatsoever in History or Philosophy. Zilch. A broad and cynical pastiche of feudal Europe has been provided for your amusement in the form of the Realm of Dulcinea, alongside worldbuilding tools to weave your own comic tapestry upon its castle walls. Come away from this game with not a single new fact in your head!

Follow us here, on twitter, and on itch.io to hear more about this and other projects! 

#most trusted advisors #TTRPG #indie TTRPG #forged in the dark

[explorerrowan]

Alternative systems to publish your TTRPG content under now that WotC is promising to steal your stuff if you make it with D&D:

Cypher System by Monte Cook Games:

Apocalypse World/Powered by the Apocalypse:

Blades in the Dark:

Modiphius (2d20 system):

I know there are many more, but those are the big systems that pop in my head at the moment. (Technically, GURPS also lives in my head, but that's more of a curse, really.)

Go make your cool stuff and don't let anyone tell you it isn't yours just because you used their game rules.

#ttrpg #roleplaying games #ttrpg community #ogl 1.1 #wizards of the coast #wotc #cypher system #monte cook games #apocalypse world #powered by the apocalypse #pbta #blades in the dark #forged in the dark #modiphius #2d20 system #d&d

[sohkrates]

SLUGBLASTER Game of the Year Edition

One of my all-time favourite TTRPGs is getting a second printing.

Slugblaster is a forged in the dark game about teens sneaking into other dimensions, doing tricks, trying to be cool, hoverboarding, and avoiding curfew. It's got all the best coming of age story features with a healthy dose of humour and technicolour science fiction.

It's one of the funniest RPGs I have ever read. The deluxe version comes with a dang pizza box GM screen, dice, and awesome stickers.

(also I wrote a bit for it and did some proofreading) but you should still get it, it's amazing.

#indie ttrpg #ttrpg #slugblaster #crowdfunding #backerkit #forged in the dark #rpg #scifi

[moofahdrome]

In regard to your pin post, what games do you like to play? I'm always a sucker for hearing about other tabletops people enjoy.

Ooooooh thank you for asking!!! I'm a big sucker for easy to run character focused games like Thirsty Sword Lesbians or Masks: A New Generation, but I also love love love games with potential for really cool and creative combat like Eidolon: Become Your Best Self, Gubat Banwa, and LANCER.

My primary experience is with Powered by the Apocalypse games, but I'm looking to expand my horizons a bit in the future! Blades in the Dark is super cool, but other Forged in the Dark games appeal to me a lot, especially Brinkwood - The Blood of Tyrants, a super cool game about organizing a revolution against colonialist capitalist vampires.

There's really so many amazing games by queer indie creators out there - Apocalypse Keys recently had its full release, as did EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER the TTRPG! There's really something for everyone. I really need to play more Ryuutama for its lovely adventure vibes, Hard Wired Island for a return to true anticapitalist cyberpunk, as well as Flying Circus for amazingly accurate WWI-era plane action in a miyazaki-inspired setting! Other stuff I've had for a while but need to play are Monster Care Squad, Heart: The City Beneath, and Comrades, a Revolutionary RPG.

There's also plenty of nice, charming, slower paced games as well. Wanderhome is a beautiful pastoral journey game, where everyone comes together to heal a land and experience wonders. Our Traveling Home is inspired by Howl's Moving Castle and has everyone play a unique role as a queer found family. Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast just released, and it's an amazing episodic experience packed full of beautiful content!

One of my favorite game creators is Dinoberry Press, creator of fantastic titles like Justicar, What Waits Beneath, and GUN&SLINGER, a cool 2-3 player game where one person plays a magical gun and the other their haunted wielder. It's got a couple great extra modes of play, too, like SWORD&BEARER or MECH&PILOT !

And there's even more amazing games in development. Dinoberry's You're in Space and Everything's Fucked just funded, as did HELLPIERCERS: TACTICAL HARROWING ACTION. Guns Blazing and Wetrunners are really close to being funded, too, check them out! Some other great games that aren't fully complete but you can play right now are ICON, Bloodbeam Badlands, Red West, and In the Time of Monsters, all of which are some of the COOLEST things I have ever seen.

Feel free to ask more questions about any of these! I love talking about them and I'm thrilled to see interest in indie ttrpgs!!!

#tabletop role playing game #tabletop rpg #tabletop rpgs #ttrpg #lancer #thirsty sword lesbians #masks #EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER #hard wired island #flying circus #eidolon become your best self #forged in the dark #blades in the dark #brinkwood #gubat banwa #apocalypse keys #monster care squad #heart the city beneath #comrades #wanderhome #our traveling home #yazeba's bed & breakfast #dinoberry press #gun&slinger #icon rpg #play these games! #support these creators! #this is my passion!!!

[theresattrpgforthat]

SYSTEM OVERVIEW: Forged in the Dark (FitD).

I’m taking a break from my regular recommendation posts this week to talk about a few different indie ttrpg systems that have gained a lot of traction over the past few years - how they work, why I like them, and what kinds of games there are out there that use them!

I don’t think it’s a secret that I’m a big fan of Forged in the Dark games. I’ve sung the praises of games like Brinkwood, Slugblaster and The Wildsea time and time again, and I’m even designing my own FitD hack! So let’s talk about what makes this system tick.

The Action Roll

The core mechanic of Forged in the Dark games is the Action Roll. To do most things in these games, the player will have to assemble a small pool of d6s. These dice may come from skills, special abilities, inventory - it depends on the game, but you’ll usually have somewhere between 0 and 4d6 to roll.

When you roll, you look for the single highest dice (or multiple highest, if you manage to get two 6s). If your best result is a 1-3, you’re not going to get what you want. If your best result is a 4/5, you’ll probably get a success with a cost - whether that be harm, only part of what you want, or more trouble down the road. If you get a single 6, you do it - and if you get multiple 6s, you do it well!

What I like about this is that it’s easy to tell at a glance how well you do, and that the dice used for this system are the most accessible dice on the market. Not only that, the possibilities of a 4/5 are quite broad - you could have a consequence that is physical harm to the character, but you could also embarrass them, break their stuff, or just hint at bad things to come!

But Mint, how do you roll 0d6? Well, in particularly difficult scenarios, the player will roll 2d6 and take the lowest number instead. This originates from the progenitor of Forged in the Dark games, Blades in the Dark, which is meant to be particularly difficult and punishing.

Position & Effect

Another core mechanic of FitD games is Position & Effect. These are narrative tools that help the GM communicate to the players how dangerous the proposed plan of action is, as well as how likely the characters are to succeed.

Position is going to be Controlled, Risky or Desperate, indicating how much danger the characters are in, but also the stakes of failure. Failing a Controlled roll means you’re probably going to get out of there with minimal harm, or possibly a chance to try again. Failing a Desperate roll means that shit is going to hit the fan, and you’re going to be caught up in all of it. Risky rolls are somewhere in the middle, and considered the "standard" difficulty.

Effect is a metric for how successful your character is going to be. Picking a lock might not be dangerous, but if your character isn’t a thief and doesn’t have any lock-picks, they might not be very effective! Players can alter the effectiveness of their actions by changing how they go about solving a problem, using the gear they have on hand, or agreeing to approach the problem from a more desperate Position.

What I like about this is that Position & Effect encourage conversation and agency between the GM and the players. The players have final say over what they do, but the GM is able to communicate why they feel certain approaches may be more or less effective. The story is generative, and the way the rolls are adjudicated allow all of the parties to contribute to what happens next.

The Resistance Roll

Related to this conversation about agency is the Resistance Roll. If a player doesn’t like the consequence that the GM hands out, they can choose to Resist the consequences. They usually do this by rolling a certain number of resistance dice, and spending a player resource called Stress. (Other games use other names.) Depending on the consequence, the player might resist it outright or reduce the severity, but spend too much stress and you run into different kinds of consequences - whether that be Trauma (Blades), Trouble at Home (Slugblaster) or something unlucky (Antiquarian Adventures). Stress can be managed during a phase typically called Downtime, through various activities dependant on the setting.

I like this mechanic not just because it gives players agency, but also because of the Stress track tied to it. This is a player resource but it can also be a track pointing a change in the character, a chance to build in narrative themes, or a reason to role-play certain narrative effects. Many different FitD games use Stress in a number of unique ways, and I think tweaking this element can do a lot to determine the tone of the game.

Crew Sheets

This leads to the next bit of Forged in the Dark games that I really like - Crew Sheets. Similar to a number of other narrative games, FitD has character playbooks (which are kind of like character classes in D&D, but also are a carryover from PbtA games - I’ll talk about them more in the PbtA post), but Forged in the Dark games also have a uniting theme that gives your players a reason to work together.

In Neon Black, this is your local community, which both takes care of you and asks you for favours. In Moth-Light, this is your Pact, which determines not just your group’s goal, but also the tone and themes of your story. In Brinkwood, this is your Rebellion and the Faerie patron who is taking care of you - but it’s also the Mask playbooks that all of the players share, with special magical powers that help you fight Vampires.

Modular Systems

There are bits and pieces that also exist in FitD games that help define the experience. Clocks, for example, are abstract representations of looming consequences or player goals, and allow you to work towards a big pay-off over time. Factions can represent a changing social landscape, with friends and foes that you can turn to for help or strike out against in order to gain ground. Harm can alter how many dice you roll, or how effective you are when acting. These are interlocking pieces, but they’re not necessarily required.

Most of what I’ve covered in this post is not strictly necessary for a Forged in the Dark game. The Wildsea doesn’t use Stress or pre-set playbooks. Protect the Child doesn’t use Trauma. Scum & Villainy adds a Gambit mechanic that gives you extra ways to earn dice. Slugblaster changes how you Resist consequences, and External Containment Bureau moves the Clock mechanic to the front and centre, while doing away with Factions pretty much altogether. All of these games have enough pieces to be considered Forged in the Dark, but the play experience is very different, and each mod included, altered or dropped are usually choices that support the genre or tone of the game.

I’ve talked about a number of Forged in the Dark games in the past, but here’s a few more that I’ve got my eyes on.

Dusk Academy, by Skullery Maids, is a game about a private school for teaching magic to girls.

CRASH/CART, by Galen Pejeau, is a game about paramedics in a near-future California.

a|state, by Handiwork Games, is a game set in a strange and Dickensian city.

Girl By Moonlight, by Evil Hat, is a game about magical girls, mech pilots, and other larger-than-life characters.

There is a good list of Forged in the Dark games on the Blades website, and I've also got a Forged in the Dark collection on Itch.io!

If you are looking to make your own game, John Harper has released the Game SRD on the BitD website. These rules are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license, which means that you can create your own games using this system as long as you give appropriate credit to Harper.

What Forged in the Dark game has caught your eye? Let me know in the tags / comments!

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #forged in the dark #mint speaks #system overview

[haveyouplayedthisttrpg]

Have you played SCUM AND VILLAINY

By Stras Acimovic and John LeBoeuf-Little

A Forged in the Dark game about a spaceship crew trying to make ends meet under the iron-fisted rule of the Galactic Hegemony.

#tabletop rpg #ttrpg #poll #poll time #usa #2010s #fitd #forged in the dark #scum and villainy

[austinramsaygames]

In July 2017 a group of friends and I played a stand alone session of Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands.

In September 2023 I hold my first published and printed TTRPG, Beam Saber.

I feel... relieved to have it come this far. There's still some work to do to wrap up the Kickstarter but this is a major milestone.

There are SO many people who helped make this. Page 2 lists a lot of them, the biggest contributors, but there are more in the back!

6 years have passed since I started taking notes on my phone.

A lot has changed.

Two things that haven't are my love of mechs, and my love for Beam Saber.

I know I did a good job making it, and you should try playing it if you haven't.

I hope you'll watch what I do next.

#beam saber #ttrpg #indie ttrpg #mecha #forged in the dark #mechs

[nightjar-games]

For today's trawl through the archives, card art for a deck to go with Crash//Cart, my Forged in the Dark game of stressed out paramedics working in a cyberpunk future. This one replaced the dice with card draws, successes "falling out of the deck" as the characters got more and more frazzled by their long shift.

#illustration #ttrpg #forged in the dark #cyberpunk art #i'll get around to this one someday

[fiovske]

Do you have any recs for other non-DnD game systems? I've only ever played 5e, and I'm a little intimidated to get into other systems, but I also want to branch out and get away from WOTC's bullshit.

Sure thing! I am also including a link to the itch.io pages since that's where i get most of these games!

Blades In The Dark: i'm mentioning this first bc the rules are very easy to grasp and if you're looking for a setting that has a touch of ghosts and steampunk, this game is the perfect gateway to that! it's the best for a heist i have found and the game mechanics and names are so soo sick here's just a slice from their itch.io page:

personally i find the setting and the stress mechanic very cool, because it takes into account the mental toil that an action can have and i find games with inbuilt consequence mechanics very compelling! it introduced the concept of clocks to me and i am obsessed.

a) adjacent to Blades, are all Forged In The Dark Games which are third-party blades games, and the most notable of them is Scum and Villiany which is space-western setting and also my favorite and if you're looking to play a game in the breadth of star-wars like interplanetary politics and everything, i highly recommend this game! b) if you're looking for a Blades game with mechanics to suit something more royalty-adjacent, with court-politics and agendas and masquerade parties and all, like say d20's court of fey and flowers vibe then i recommend Court Of Blades! I havent gotten around to playing this yet but it looks really promising and i soo badly want to play a game in this setting!

2. The Ground Itself : this is a world-building game. focused on one single place over time and how it changes and how it's people change, the events of this game can be spaced out from a week to several millennia depending on the rolls of ur dice or your choices! i have found that this game serves very well as say, a session zero game also, for setting up a place before you play in it, and not only a very fun session of making a place together for your party to play in, but also not leaving all the work to the gm! so it's a win win situation!

tbh, all games by everest pipkin are very good! i wanna get my hands on world ending game as well bc it is a game about giving your campaign, your world-building and your characters the perfect send-off.

3. Wanderhome : if you're looking for something ghibli-esque (this is the closest i can come to defining this game thru popular media) then i highly recommend wanderhome! it's got a very cozy pastoral vibe to it and the art is really beautiful and you get to pick from a range of animal-folk to play as it's very cool!

also honorable mentions,

a) Sleepaway is a game by the same creator in which ur a camp counsellor to a bunch of misfits and horror stories around campfires ensue! b) Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast which is an upcoming game which you can still back and it looks really interesting so i'd recommend checking it out as well!

4. Lancer: this game has mechs it has space-battles and you get to be a pilot in a future set years in the future and a thousand directions to take ur campaign in! he relationship between pilot and mech is smth that can be so personal.....

i wanna play lancer sometime it has very cool mech designs and it has very much piqued my interest, if i find ppl who wanna play lancer w me im 🏃🏃!

5. Heart The City Beneath : honestly, one of my fave settings of all time, it has strong horror components so mind the cws! but the classes and the game mechanics are very intuitive and overall it helps you not only build a character that feels natural and organic, but since this is a horror setting, things do not have happy endings... however it will ensure that your characters have a well-built journey whose ends will be terrifying and magnificent.

I got introduced to the fallout mechanic through this game and oooo how i love it, it's the perfect blend of your actions have consequences + every consequence is interesting and will affect your character deeply and emotionally, which is <33

this list got too long so i will just mention some more here:

the quiet year (very good map-making game, for before the frost shepherds arrive in winter.)

beam saber (forged in the dark game that deserves its on mention! austin ramsey's games i highly recommend!)

thirsty sword lesbians (ecactly what it says on the tin, i wanna check this game out also)

lotr's one ring rpg (this one is the closest substitute to classic d&d bc lets be real. tolkien is where d&d got it's shit from. and i have heard good things abt this game even tho i've never had the chance to play it)

mothership rpg (space horror whose build mechanics are very easy and user-friendly and i've had a LOT of fun with this!)

orbital (one very beautifully written rpg about life in space and it's only 32 pages but well-worth the time, highly recommend)

that's all i can give off the top of my head, i might've missed a few but these are strong standouts, so i hope u find at least one to your liking!

#ttrpg recomendations #not dnd #blades in the dark #forged in the dark #the ground itself #wanderhome #lancer #heart the city beneath #the quiet year #beam saber #thirsty sword lesbians #one ring rpg #mothership rpg #orbital #ttrpg #long post #genuinely recommending this to everyone. #d&d is a very good jumping off platform and w everything happening right now... #no better time to leave wotc and try indie creators' games.