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chuckroCake By the Ocean (standalone ttrpg) – This is a game about teenagers negotiating sex via the metaphor of eating cake together. And I say “game,” but it manages to miss any actual useful information for playing the game. This dedicates multiple pages to safety techniques, one page to setup and characters, and seven sentences to actually playing—it’s the kind of game written by someone who assumes a lot about their home group’s playstyle being universal and figuring they can “dot dot dot” the actual interaction portion of the game (an “American Freeform”, apparently) as long as enough “safety mechanics” are mentioned.
Bewitched: A Game of Bisexual Witches and Found Family (standalone ttrpg) – This is a minimalist RPG (in that is does include enough mechanics to be playable) that straddles the line between being parody and sincere to the point I can’t decide where it falls. You play as a bisexual witch of any gender whose superpower (telepathy, shapeshifting or, of course, invisibility) is directly tied to your “bisexuality” stat. It might be good for a goofy one-shot for a group of self-aware, extremely online bisexuals?
Aw Jeez, The Airship’s On Fire (system-agnostic module) – While this is made for the High Magic Lowlives system, it comes with enough details to basically run it with whatever high-magic fantasy system you want. You’re a group of criminals sneaking onto an airship to steal something important, and this gives you plenty of details about the ship, the crew and the hazards thereon. And also the fact that the airship is on fire and how unpleasant that’s going to make your day. I’m totally putting this in the to-run pile.
High Magic Lowlives (standalone ttrpg) – “A game about wizard school dropouts who get into trouble with the Immortal Aristocracy to make coin and build their #brand.” It’s loosely based on Powered by the Apocalypse, but less about the moves and much more about the tables and a variety of dice. And every character has a technomagic smart phone, to keep things exciting. It’s a game designed for wacky hijinks heists, though I suspect I’m more likely to use pieces from it rather than trying to run the whole system.
Immortal Festival (system-agnostic module) – During a specific day of convergence, the gods and mortals meet as equals. Every mortal receives a domain and a power for the duration of the festival, and all are immortal until the day ends. And until the day ends, the various gods are likely to request your assistance at assorted tasks (which there’s a table of), so you can attempt to curry their long-term favor by helping them. This is another fun idea that could make a wacky one-shot or be rearranged to fit into an ongoing campaign.
If It Wasn’t For… (standalone ttrpg) – A relatively simple game of making up ridiculous stories, with a glass-tapping mechanism that’s just there for turn-taking. The example that I came up with is, Player 1: “If it wasn’t for Cotton-Eyed Joe…” Player 2: “I would have been married a long time ago.” And then Player 3 has to explain the full story behind that. (And afterwards, everyone at the table wonders aloud where Cotton-Eyed Joe came from and where he went.) I see what they’re going for, but there are better storytelling cue games, most notably the Baron Munchausen rpg.
Grandma Club (standalone ttrpg) – A single-page joke rpg about a group of doting grandmothers solving problems; this has enough material to get the joke across but not enough to actually be playable. (The skills are funny, but won’t actually apply to any problem-solving; and there’s a tiny list of potential plots that makes the collection of Laser & Feelings derivatives seem well-fleshed-out.)
Garfield ± You (standalone ttrpg) – A two-person game featuring a Human (who is as mundane as possible) and Garfield (a cartoon character who also can approximate a haunted telephone, only visible to the Human). This is what my son would call a “talking game”, with no rules or strictures besides a few prompt tables, in which an otherwise-boring human must deal with having Garfield in their life until the players get bored.
bastards. (standalone ttrpg) – A low-level dungeon-crawling murder-hobos game that doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from other free-form structure-light systems of this type, with one exception: I love the random spell table that allows for such wonderful spells as Speak With Sadness, Conceal Wine, See Through Air, and Enthrall Blood. I want to plug that spell table into a better system to give the wizard(s) some real excitement.
Butterfly Princesses of the Swordlands (standalone ttrpg) – Every member of the Monarchy (except the Monarch herself) is a Princess, who has butterfly wings and a magical sword, and is directly in line for the throne. Every player is one such Princess, with skills divided into fluttering, stabbing, doing magic and winning hearts. An inciting incident occurs which sets them against each other, and then you resolve all conflicts not with dice, but instead with Curling. Like, the sport, just a tabletop version thereof where you slide dice into a circle and try to knock each other out of it. Which means this game consists of two unrelated ridiculous ideas that might be worth trying, but perhaps not together.
Butter Princess (standalone ttrpg) – Apparently based on a system called Trophy Dark (which I’ve never heard of, though it honestly feels very similar to Cthulhu Dark in terms of theme and mechanics), this game is about a visit to the State Fair that drives you slowly to ruin, as you compete to win, steal or destroy a carved dairy statue called the “butter princess.” This is really just a single game that you can run once, but I give them credit for fleshing out the acts, various optional events, and plenty of ways for the characters to screw themselves over. It more makes me want to either find Trophy Dark or just backwards-merge a few of the additional mechanics here into Cthulhu Dark.
When You Meet Your Doppleganger on the Road, You Must Make Out With Them (standalone ttrpg) - This is another two-player “talking game” which feels the need to dedicate multiple pages to emotional safety within the game. You plays as weird identical strangers who meet on the road, explore a strangely empty hotel, and then go to a room with Only One Bed. The only actual game mechanics are tallying “steamy” versus “spooky” moments, which determines whether the ending reveals it’s a coincidence that you’re identical and you should bang; or that you’re demons sent to torment each other and should murder each other after you bang. This is somebody’s thing, but I don’t think it’s mine.
Chromatic Sorcerer Origin (D&D supplement) – Cool idea, basically associating the sorcerer with a color and element and giving them aesthetic effects from the color and mechanical effects from the element. It looks like the abilities synergize a little too well at the higher levels (I don’t think it’s intentional; but game balance is always iffy on homebrews like this), and I’m a little irked that you can’t channel the entire rainbow, even at 20th level. Also, the author uses the word “whilst”, a sure sign of a douchebag.
Azoulas Origin (D&D supplement) – Player options for a race of dryad-like plant fae, the most notable of which is a natural toxin they can excrete once between rests. This has a page of background text and a page of mechanics; it’s the sort of idea you’d need to flesh out more to actually use in most games.
Spellthief Rogue (D&D supplement) – This is an attempt at updating the Spellthief class to 5E as a Rogue class option; and it’s both bare-bones and poorly thought out. At 3rd level you can steal a random spell by forgoing sneak attack damage, but no details are given about whether you can cast it or use it in any way. (Also, any spellcaster you’d fight at 3rd level would just outright die from taking your full sneak attack damage; there’s no real value in removing their spells.) At 9th level, if you can make a second successful sneak attack against the same target, you can center the stolen spell on them as a bonus action. Again, severely limited utility for a number of reasons. At 13th level you can become incorporeal several times a day, which is moderately powerful; and then at 17th level you can steal active buff spells. All of this is way too target-specific (an enemy spellcaster worth weakening rather than outright killing who specifically uses spells rather than spell-like abilities) and generally ineffective.
Overall: Aw Jeez, The Airship’s On Fire is getting used and Immortal Festival will probably show up somewhere. Butterfly Princesses of the Swordlands may get split into two games but it’s also a candidate for my table. I love the magic table from bastards. and might steal a few mechanics from Butter Princess for a different minimalist horror game.
Bewitched: A Game of Bisexual Witches and Found Family (standalone ttrpg) – This is a minimalist RPG (in that is does include enough mechanics to be playable) that straddles the line between being parody and sincere to the point I can’t decide where it falls. You play as a bisexual witch of any gender whose superpower (telepathy, shapeshifting or, of course, invisibility) is directly tied to your “bisexuality” stat. It might be good for a goofy one-shot for a group of self-aware, extremely online bisexuals?
Aw Jeez, The Airship’s On Fire (system-agnostic module) – While this is made for the High Magic Lowlives system, it comes with enough details to basically run it with whatever high-magic fantasy system you want. You’re a group of criminals sneaking onto an airship to steal something important, and this gives you plenty of details about the ship, the crew and the hazards thereon. And also the fact that the airship is on fire and how unpleasant that’s going to make your day. I’m totally putting this in the to-run pile.
High Magic Lowlives (standalone ttrpg) – “A game about wizard school dropouts who get into trouble with the Immortal Aristocracy to make coin and build their #brand.” It’s loosely based on Powered by the Apocalypse, but less about the moves and much more about the tables and a variety of dice. And every character has a technomagic smart phone, to keep things exciting. It’s a game designed for wacky hijinks heists, though I suspect I’m more likely to use pieces from it rather than trying to run the whole system.
Immortal Festival (system-agnostic module) – During a specific day of convergence, the gods and mortals meet as equals. Every mortal receives a domain and a power for the duration of the festival, and all are immortal until the day ends. And until the day ends, the various gods are likely to request your assistance at assorted tasks (which there’s a table of), so you can attempt to curry their long-term favor by helping them. This is another fun idea that could make a wacky one-shot or be rearranged to fit into an ongoing campaign.
If It Wasn’t For… (standalone ttrpg) – A relatively simple game of making up ridiculous stories, with a glass-tapping mechanism that’s just there for turn-taking. The example that I came up with is, Player 1: “If it wasn’t for Cotton-Eyed Joe…” Player 2: “I would have been married a long time ago.” And then Player 3 has to explain the full story behind that. (And afterwards, everyone at the table wonders aloud where Cotton-Eyed Joe came from and where he went.) I see what they’re going for, but there are better storytelling cue games, most notably the Baron Munchausen rpg.
Grandma Club (standalone ttrpg) – A single-page joke rpg about a group of doting grandmothers solving problems; this has enough material to get the joke across but not enough to actually be playable. (The skills are funny, but won’t actually apply to any problem-solving; and there’s a tiny list of potential plots that makes the collection of Laser & Feelings derivatives seem well-fleshed-out.)
Garfield ± You (standalone ttrpg) – A two-person game featuring a Human (who is as mundane as possible) and Garfield (a cartoon character who also can approximate a haunted telephone, only visible to the Human). This is what my son would call a “talking game”, with no rules or strictures besides a few prompt tables, in which an otherwise-boring human must deal with having Garfield in their life until the players get bored.
bastards. (standalone ttrpg) – A low-level dungeon-crawling murder-hobos game that doesn’t do much to differentiate itself from other free-form structure-light systems of this type, with one exception: I love the random spell table that allows for such wonderful spells as Speak With Sadness, Conceal Wine, See Through Air, and Enthrall Blood. I want to plug that spell table into a better system to give the wizard(s) some real excitement.
Butterfly Princesses of the Swordlands (standalone ttrpg) – Every member of the Monarchy (except the Monarch herself) is a Princess, who has butterfly wings and a magical sword, and is directly in line for the throne. Every player is one such Princess, with skills divided into fluttering, stabbing, doing magic and winning hearts. An inciting incident occurs which sets them against each other, and then you resolve all conflicts not with dice, but instead with Curling. Like, the sport, just a tabletop version thereof where you slide dice into a circle and try to knock each other out of it. Which means this game consists of two unrelated ridiculous ideas that might be worth trying, but perhaps not together.
Butter Princess (standalone ttrpg) – Apparently based on a system called Trophy Dark (which I’ve never heard of, though it honestly feels very similar to Cthulhu Dark in terms of theme and mechanics), this game is about a visit to the State Fair that drives you slowly to ruin, as you compete to win, steal or destroy a carved dairy statue called the “butter princess.” This is really just a single game that you can run once, but I give them credit for fleshing out the acts, various optional events, and plenty of ways for the characters to screw themselves over. It more makes me want to either find Trophy Dark or just backwards-merge a few of the additional mechanics here into Cthulhu Dark.
When You Meet Your Doppleganger on the Road, You Must Make Out With Them (standalone ttrpg) - This is another two-player “talking game” which feels the need to dedicate multiple pages to emotional safety within the game. You plays as weird identical strangers who meet on the road, explore a strangely empty hotel, and then go to a room with Only One Bed. The only actual game mechanics are tallying “steamy” versus “spooky” moments, which determines whether the ending reveals it’s a coincidence that you’re identical and you should bang; or that you’re demons sent to torment each other and should murder each other after you bang. This is somebody’s thing, but I don’t think it’s mine.
Chromatic Sorcerer Origin (D&D supplement) – Cool idea, basically associating the sorcerer with a color and element and giving them aesthetic effects from the color and mechanical effects from the element. It looks like the abilities synergize a little too well at the higher levels (I don’t think it’s intentional; but game balance is always iffy on homebrews like this), and I’m a little irked that you can’t channel the entire rainbow, even at 20th level. Also, the author uses the word “whilst”, a sure sign of a douchebag.
Azoulas Origin (D&D supplement) – Player options for a race of dryad-like plant fae, the most notable of which is a natural toxin they can excrete once between rests. This has a page of background text and a page of mechanics; it’s the sort of idea you’d need to flesh out more to actually use in most games.
Spellthief Rogue (D&D supplement) – This is an attempt at updating the Spellthief class to 5E as a Rogue class option; and it’s both bare-bones and poorly thought out. At 3rd level you can steal a random spell by forgoing sneak attack damage, but no details are given about whether you can cast it or use it in any way. (Also, any spellcaster you’d fight at 3rd level would just outright die from taking your full sneak attack damage; there’s no real value in removing their spells.) At 9th level, if you can make a second successful sneak attack against the same target, you can center the stolen spell on them as a bonus action. Again, severely limited utility for a number of reasons. At 13th level you can become incorporeal several times a day, which is moderately powerful; and then at 17th level you can steal active buff spells. All of this is way too target-specific (an enemy spellcaster worth weakening rather than outright killing who specifically uses spells rather than spell-like abilities) and generally ineffective.
Overall: Aw Jeez, The Airship’s On Fire is getting used and Immortal Festival will probably show up somewhere. Butterfly Princesses of the Swordlands may get split into two games but it’s also a candidate for my table. I love the magic table from bastards. and might steal a few mechanics from Butter Princess for a different minimalist horror game.
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Date: 2022-03-28 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-28 07:55 pm (UTC)