[7:34 PM]Agonarchartist: Hi. I’m a professional writer and Illustrator, best known for the negative space D&D trilogy, Quantum Ogre and the blog Hack & Slash. I’m currently running a Kickstarter for Sinless, a Shadowrun inspired table top RPG homage of cyberpunk and magic with an integrated domain game.
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All posts for the month February, 2023
[7:32 PM]nagi: hello all! I’m nagi, the writer and producer for BURNAWAY: a TTRPG about Loss and Hope from the Ashes. I’ve been gathering a team and working on this project for the past year, and we’ve got a Kickstarter campaign running for it right now! Can a house be haunted even while it burns down? A not-so hypothetical question in a world with Embergeists – spirits so mournful or vindictive that their very ectoplasm combusts, setting their haunts ablaze. Players enter the scene as a brigade of Burnaways – mercenaries who must act as fire fighters, detectives, and ghost hunters to stop the Embergeists by means of force or empathy. BURNAWAY is a game about making tough choices in the literal heat of the moment, and coping with the consequences when the ash has settled. A near-future retropunk setting and “grimhope” tone puts focus on narrative growth, contrasted with a unique “level-down” mechanic in a lightweight, accessible system geared toward one-shots and short campaigns.
[1:09 PM]d00m: Hey, everyone! I’m Ben, the lead editor of Funemployment Press. Been playing tabletop RPGs since I was a preteen, starting with D&D and sticking through with it pretty steadily, but in the last half a decade, Call of Cthulhu, Death in Space, and Blades in the Dark as well. We’re a group of about half a dozen weirdo nerds, writers, and artists, who so far have put out a couple of short fiction anthologies. In 2022, we decided that in 2023, we’d release a tabletop RPG. We had a few unique ideas, but Strikes & Spares was the one we decided to work on early enough for this year’s ZineQuest.
[1:10 PM]d00m: Strikes & Spares is a slice-of-life tabletop roleplaying game with a slightly hard-luck/offbeat tone that’s set in a small-town bowling league. The game centers on a team of misfits who rally together to win the season down at the local bowling alley. The players will take on the role of a single team in a bowling league composed of several other teams, all competing to win the big prize pot at the end of the year.
[1:11 PM]d00m: We were really inspired by playing a few sessions of Wanderhome, which although radically different in tone, mechanics, settings, and basically all aspects haha, really did a great job of setting small-scale yet meaningful stakes.
[7:35 PM]Opti: Hey folks! I’m Opti from Fragging Unicorns Games and lead developer of the Subversion RPG, which is currently live on Kickstarter. In Subversion, you play as an envoy of your community, a representative, ambassador, problem solver, taking direct action to serve and save your community in the cyberpunk fantasy city of Neo Babylon. Its a brand new D6 system (the people’s dice, lol), and I’m happy to unpack any and all of it tonight. My and Fragging Unicorns prior work includes Gangs of the Undercity (a minis skirmish game set in the same world as Subversion), Misspent Youth: Fall In Love, Not in Line, lots of Shadowrun stuff including being a dev on 6th edition, SR: Anarchy, and other cool stuff, and I also do the Neo-Anarchist Podcast (In-character Shadowrun history) and Shadowrun: Origins Actual Play.
Here’s the KS link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fraggingunicorns/subversion Glad to be here and thanks for having me! (done)KickstarterFragging Unicorns GamesSubversionA cyberpunk fantasy RPG set in Neo Babylon
[7:34 PM]WolfWyzard: Hey everyone! My name is Stephen and Im here tonight to talk about Band of the Black Wolf. A zine project that is both an adventure module for Old School Essentials as well as a setting guide for a portion of my campaign world called Jafnhárr Vale. Its suggested for low to mid level characters and 4 to 6 players. Its based on my love for the Norse Sagas and movies like the Northman. Thank you so much for having me. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1862793034/band-of-the-black-wolf?ref=user_menuKickstarterS. John BatemanBand of the Black Wolfa setting and adventure for OSR games #zinequest5
[7:37 PM]Stéph (She/her): So to start with the very basics, my name is Stéphanie Dusablon (French Canadian in case you are wondering) and this is my first ever Q&A, which isn’t surprising seeing as The Dreamland Expedition (TDE) is my first design.2
[7:38 PM]Stéph (She/her): I actually discovered the world of solo RPGs last year, and I enthusiastically explored them looking for my niche. I found it in the quiet little corner occupied by journaling games and I played several back to back, and started analyzing what I liked and didn’t like, still trying to further narrow down on what makes a RPG game great (for me).1
[7:38 PM]Stéph (She/her): In my quest, I came across a game designer by the name of Cezar Capacle and I really liked his vision both in terms of the themes he likes to explore but also his design philosophy. His Push System Reference Document particularly captured my attention as it puts forth a D6-based system that is:
[7:38 PM]Stéph (She/her): Whiff-proof
[7:38 PM]Stéph (She/her): Stats-less
[7:38 PM]Stéph (She/her): GM-less
[7:39 PM]Stéph (She/her): Narrative driven
[7:39 PM]Stéph (She/her): So basically perfect for the two kinds of RPGs playing that I can get in with regularity – solo, and with my children. The SRD was really comprehensive and actually included a Canva template for creating an A5 zine. And that’s when I started wondering what a game of mine would look and feel like… And then things started getting completely out of hands and next thing I knew TDE was on Kickstarter.1
[7:31 PM]rexsaurus: Hello I’m richard the founder of team rex games We have made a TTRPG named Vault!1
[7:31 PM]ZCorvus: I’m Zach, one of the lore and monster writers for the game Vault!1
[7:32 PM]rexsaurus: Vault’s system is designed to combine relatable near-future cyberpunk elements with the mysterious and heroic nature of fantasy. This system favors teams of 3-5 players engaging with stories of urban fantasy, crime, horror, detective dramas, and even the convergence of technology and ethics. One night you might be working out the details of a bullet train heist, and the next, hunting down a cult dedicated to cosmic horrors. Players will find fun and flavorful ways to invest in their characters and improve them often. The system also focuses on giving players meaningful choices both in and out of combat. World Shapers (otherwise known as GMs or game masters) will have tools to keep the focus on their story, run gritty fast-paced fights, and present challenges that force players to think on their feet.
[7:32 PM]StorytellingRon: Hello! I’m a GM/DM of 45 years… Advanced DnD, MERP, ROLEMASTER, SPACEMASTER… homebrews… Cthulhu, etc…
[7:32 PM]StorytellingRon: HOLD ON
[7:32 PM]StorytellingRon: I’m gonna remove this bandage!
[7:33 PM]StorytellingRon: Dang it’s like a mini cast!
[7:33 PM]StorytellingRon: Okay… I’ll continue.
[7:37 PM]StorytellingRon: So renewed my DnD with 5E with my daughter… last few years. Got really into it. Back in the saddle as it were. Started a youtube channel. Did Star Wars FFG, having a blast…. But… I’m not a woke person… I am a Christian… and the direction of many mainstream IPs were going woke, which isn’t for me. So… I sought old school or whatever… than pondered Chrisitian RPGs, why there wasn’t any? Or much. Hard to find Christian players etc… Had a pastor even contact me so I thought be neat to do a all pastor DnD thing… I could not get that going. But eventually… I just wanted to replicate the historical setting of medieval Europe where we know Christianity grew. And nothing out there. So I began this odd journey in crafting it.
[7:40 PM]StorytellingRon: It started out as a OSR but then I came across Mork Borg and Mothership and realized I didn’t have to make it so dang rules ‘covering all aspects’ requiring so many rolls and charts etc… plus I didn’t want to be burdened by historical or sermon accuracy. Thusly a fun simple missionary based game where they just church plant… try to… not converting as much as getting pagans to allow a church and to stop doing oppressive or slavery or sacrifice things. But mostly family frienldy!
[7:41 PM]StorytellingRon: I chose to start 6th cent Italy because of how Dark Ages it is.. and at the ground level where missionaries go out to villages and deal with local issues.
[7:43 PM]StorytellingRon: Biggest thing too, I found no actual play of any Christian RPGs… others. While 100s of them, nothing Christian at all. We all know why… but still I’m like, welp… gotta do it! Gotta figure it out. Gotta have this as a viable option for folks. So as much as I worked on the game, I worked on testing it out and testing out Christian actors, all non RPGers… to make Christian RPG liveplays.
[7:31 PM]Molgannard (He/Him): Hello everyone, my name is Scott. I live in Oakland CA and I have bee publishing games for about a year. I have published 2 one shots for Mothership and I am currently running a Kickstarter for my first big project The Sins of Eden Prime
[7:33 PM]Molgannard (He/Him): The Sins of Eden Prime is a sci-f gothic horror sandbox adventure for Mothership. Inspired by the Matrix, Soma, and gothic horror media. The Kickstarter also includes 2 prequel one shot adventures.
[7:33 PM]Molgannard (He/Him): Excited to talk with y’all
[1:02 PM]GMaia: Hello, I am Axel but I prefer to use a pseudo for my hobby therefore, GMaia. I am from Italy, 49, happily married with 2 wonderful kids!
[1:02 PM]GMaia: Let me introduce myself: I am a former player and GM, I started in 1983 with the first Italian edition of D&D, the red box with Elmore cover. I do not play since 2017, I have not anymore time to dedicate to my hobby.
[1:03 PM]GMaia: By the end of 90s I also started collecting. I have a quite ‘good’ collection: nearly all of them are focusing on fantasy RPGs, the greatest part is referred to the early period, from 1974 up to the 80s. Even here I stopped collecting since a couple of years… actually nearly stopped… from time to time I still buy something.
[1:04 PM]GMaia: Now, the last activity within the same scope is writing. I started in 2021 thanks to Covid lockdown… the first step was the core rules of VI·VIII·X, but this is actually only the first part of a wide project which includes also other parts still to be developed and properly written!
[1:05 PM]GMaia: Today I will be happy to talk about the VI·VIII·X core rules and explain its underlying model, which I called KUP. I am not against the overall project, therefore if there is an interest in it we can talk also about it (there is a second underlying purpose with the setting for instance…).
[1:06 PM]GMaia: One last remark at this stage: my apologies for my English! I will try avoid mistakes but a live session will likley call them!
[1:07 PM]GMaia: Thanks for your invitation here and let’s start then!