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chuckroWyldvir (standalone ttrpg) - A relatively rules-light system where everyone has a small amount of elemental wild magic (based on their race and home city) and wizards can have more. It supports combat, but clearly isn’t designed around it—even the monster descriptions indicate you’re supposed to wear them out and tame them, not hurt them. Mostly, the core book needs more to it—more worldbuilding, a significantly bigger wild surge table, more skills and examples of play; etc. The experience system is based on increasing your die size for an ability after you roll it a certain number of times, which invites min/maxing and (more irritatingly) doesn’t include a tally area on the character sheet. (I think, if I ran this, I’d use a version of the Call of Cthulhu XP system, where you check off an ability when you use it, and at the end of each session you can roll to try to raise everything you used.) Also, I’m irritated that the quickstart couldn’t come up with the name “Electromancy” and used “Lightning based magic.” That said, the system is pretty simple and I may try to make this a one-night test game.
Solipstry (standalone ttrpg) - Billed as “A new approach to table-top RPGs”, this is basically D&D 3E with the numbers changed around, a bunch of things renamed (“Talents” instead of Feats, “Abilities” instead of spells), and a skill-based advancement system rather than classes and levels. I could dig into the mechanical crunch, but it’s 100 pages of complications and individual rules and I have no reason to believe it will actually be better than D&D, Pathfinder, or any of the other things it’s aping. It’s intended as an “open system”, so there’s a 5-page sample scenario, but no worldbuilding, no bestiary and no internal lore.
Next Horizon (standalone ttrpg) - This one is billed as “low-stakes fantasy roleplaying”, and that isn’t a bad description. It’s only 20 pages and the rules are fairly light and straightforward, and the booklet includes some random generation material for exploration. I don’t think there’s anything here that makes it really stand out from the pack, but there’s also nothing about it that I find particularly offensive.
TIME KNIFE (TROIKA! supplement) - I don’t know the TROIKA! System at all, but this freaky and semi-random dungeon module could be fairly easily converted to most other adventuring systems, and I suspect I’ll try using it at some point.
Iera Entera Alpha (minimalist ttrpg) - This is another one with potential, because it’s got a great hook: There are god-beasts roaming the world and terrorizing the people, and you want to cook them. The sessions are described in “recipes” and the hunting stage is called “ingredient prep.” The system is simple but strategic, because you never aim to roll high or low, you’re actually aiming as be as close to the target number as possible, and each of your stats is a number of d6s you roll. So a target number of 20 is a hard roll with four dice and impossible otherwise, but a target number of 4 is nearly impossible with four dice and pretty easy with your 1-die dump stat. (If another player helps you, their dice roll can add or subtract from yours!) I think this has potential as a one-shot using one of the three sample recipes provided.
Word Forward (Puzzle, PC game) – You get a 5x5 grid of letters, like a Boggle board, and need to clear them by making words using connecting tiles, but the tiles disappear after a single use. There are power-ups you can use to reshuffle the board, replace single letters, or destroy a single tile; but even with them this game is REALLY hard. You need to be extremely strategic because it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of solutions for the levels and it’s very easy to get trapped with only separated letters or two-letter words available.
Staxter (Puzzle/Casual, PC game) - A combination/variation of Columns and Yoshi; you get two-picture blocks that you need to drop and make matches, and you get points from sandwiching the flowers between the four colored “friends” and making them disappear. Play the levels first, they function as a tutorial and gradually introduce the buds, power-ups and potential for chains. This is a fun little casual game.
Pikuniku (Puzzle Platformer, PC game) - A exploration platformer that you play as a little ball with legs who can, predictably, roll and kick. It’s unclear what’s part of the main quest and what’s a side quest, and there isn’t really much narrative thrust; the game is clearly about exploration (and guesswork). I found baby birds and played hide-and-seek with a rock whose tea party I ruined, which game me enough apples to goes through an actual dungeon, but the Beast Mask from that didn’t get me any closer to fixing a bridge I broke. There’s a fair amount of game here and I’m not sure how extensively I feel like playing it, but it’s cute.
Mending Wall (Casual, PC game) - You play as two neighbors, each who has six pieces of stone wall to maintain. You need to type keys that correspond to each stone to move them around and fix things, while periodically sending them inside to rest. The goal is to keep the fence standing for as long as possible. This didn’t win me.
Your Future Self (Puzzle, PC game) - A mindfuck text adventure. You’re told that you’ve been pulled into a time bubble to convince your future self not to kill thousands of people and, in doing so, change the future. This is clearly suspicious from the start and there are layers of lies and secrets. The graphics are irritating (all scanlines and monitor glitches) and the time-loop conversations get irritating, especially if you don’t quite understand the points system. Fortunately, the game only takes about an hour to get through regardless, so those problems are manageable.
Solipstry (standalone ttrpg) - Billed as “A new approach to table-top RPGs”, this is basically D&D 3E with the numbers changed around, a bunch of things renamed (“Talents” instead of Feats, “Abilities” instead of spells), and a skill-based advancement system rather than classes and levels. I could dig into the mechanical crunch, but it’s 100 pages of complications and individual rules and I have no reason to believe it will actually be better than D&D, Pathfinder, or any of the other things it’s aping. It’s intended as an “open system”, so there’s a 5-page sample scenario, but no worldbuilding, no bestiary and no internal lore.
Next Horizon (standalone ttrpg) - This one is billed as “low-stakes fantasy roleplaying”, and that isn’t a bad description. It’s only 20 pages and the rules are fairly light and straightforward, and the booklet includes some random generation material for exploration. I don’t think there’s anything here that makes it really stand out from the pack, but there’s also nothing about it that I find particularly offensive.
TIME KNIFE (TROIKA! supplement) - I don’t know the TROIKA! System at all, but this freaky and semi-random dungeon module could be fairly easily converted to most other adventuring systems, and I suspect I’ll try using it at some point.
Iera Entera Alpha (minimalist ttrpg) - This is another one with potential, because it’s got a great hook: There are god-beasts roaming the world and terrorizing the people, and you want to cook them. The sessions are described in “recipes” and the hunting stage is called “ingredient prep.” The system is simple but strategic, because you never aim to roll high or low, you’re actually aiming as be as close to the target number as possible, and each of your stats is a number of d6s you roll. So a target number of 20 is a hard roll with four dice and impossible otherwise, but a target number of 4 is nearly impossible with four dice and pretty easy with your 1-die dump stat. (If another player helps you, their dice roll can add or subtract from yours!) I think this has potential as a one-shot using one of the three sample recipes provided.
Word Forward (Puzzle, PC game) – You get a 5x5 grid of letters, like a Boggle board, and need to clear them by making words using connecting tiles, but the tiles disappear after a single use. There are power-ups you can use to reshuffle the board, replace single letters, or destroy a single tile; but even with them this game is REALLY hard. You need to be extremely strategic because it doesn’t seem like there are a lot of solutions for the levels and it’s very easy to get trapped with only separated letters or two-letter words available.
Staxter (Puzzle/Casual, PC game) - A combination/variation of Columns and Yoshi; you get two-picture blocks that you need to drop and make matches, and you get points from sandwiching the flowers between the four colored “friends” and making them disappear. Play the levels first, they function as a tutorial and gradually introduce the buds, power-ups and potential for chains. This is a fun little casual game.
Pikuniku (Puzzle Platformer, PC game) - A exploration platformer that you play as a little ball with legs who can, predictably, roll and kick. It’s unclear what’s part of the main quest and what’s a side quest, and there isn’t really much narrative thrust; the game is clearly about exploration (and guesswork). I found baby birds and played hide-and-seek with a rock whose tea party I ruined, which game me enough apples to goes through an actual dungeon, but the Beast Mask from that didn’t get me any closer to fixing a bridge I broke. There’s a fair amount of game here and I’m not sure how extensively I feel like playing it, but it’s cute.
Mending Wall (Casual, PC game) - You play as two neighbors, each who has six pieces of stone wall to maintain. You need to type keys that correspond to each stone to move them around and fix things, while periodically sending them inside to rest. The goal is to keep the fence standing for as long as possible. This didn’t win me.
Your Future Self (Puzzle, PC game) - A mindfuck text adventure. You’re told that you’ve been pulled into a time bubble to convince your future self not to kill thousands of people and, in doing so, change the future. This is clearly suspicious from the start and there are layers of lies and secrets. The graphics are irritating (all scanlines and monitor glitches) and the time-loop conversations get irritating, especially if you don’t quite understand the points system. Fortunately, the game only takes about an hour to get through regardless, so those problems are manageable.
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Date: 2021-08-02 10:33 pm (UTC)- So...Solipstry is solipsistic enough to think anyone would play their non-original game?