RPG Ramblings

I was planning on completing my daily mission in MTG Arena, and finishing up the blog post I’d started, and maybe getting some playwriting done, but instead I did other very fun and very productive things last night and I have absolutely no regrets.  So since I missed my chance to do TTRPG Tuesday on schedule, we’re going to do a “Whatever I Want Wednesday” - and what I want is to do my TTRPG Tuesday post a day late.  That’s called a compromise! Enjoy.

Ok, I’m “participating” in a study right now, so I’ve got some time to kick out some more thoughts for this week’s - TTRPG Tuesday! I’ve been thinking non-stop about The Envy of Ajax, and I downloaded What A Terrible Night so that I could get an idea of the amount of information in a pamphlet RPG, and how that information is presented.  I can visualize the trifold pamphlet stood up, like a DM screen, with Setup and Player information on the outside, perhaps map/environment, and enemies, story beats, items and their consequences on the inside.  The research complex is called the Bullseye, because it’s roughly laid out in concentric circles.   Maybe the players need to provide 2d6 to track their movement through the map (which ring and which sector).

Also, Button Shy just announced the return of the 18-card design contest, and this time they’re looking for RPGs.  18 poker-sized cards, up to 3 pages of rules, optionally 1 player sheet per player, 3d6 or 1 set of RPG dice.  I’m thinking two different paths:

• The Margaret Cycle: A system vs a specific game, and a narrative experiment.  Eight cards are arrayed overlapping to form a ring, and each card (double-sided?) is a fantastic (but not fantasy-specific) concept - The Adversary, the Humble Beginning, the Betrayal, the Broken Sanctuary, the Dispossessed Native, the Old Manor, the Tool of Unmaking, etc. Maybe cards have a Location side (which itself has opposing versions for each edge) and an Event side (Events also include characters, and also have opposing or at least different versions for each edge).  Outside the initial ring, an Event is played on each location.  The dice and the player’s resource management and roleplaying choices can cause a card to switch which edge is active, or even move a card further down the path / swap it for one further down.  Events can be acquired? Locations can have a die left there to claim it for a special ongoing use, at the expense of whatever dice are used for? Maybe the initial ring of Locations is laid out, but upon encountering each Location, one player (rotating) draws the next Event card, introduces the Location, and the players explore the location as led by the Event player, until that card is organically revealed.  Narrative structure will not conform to standard Western arcs; instead we’ll rely on apophenia for the players to create the shape of the story where there is no authorial intent.
• Riders.  A Kamen Rider RPG for 3-4 players.  Each player has a character sheet, to draw their fucken Rider on if nothing else.  Six of the cards are laid out, and on their turn, a Rider must challenge a card - it may be a Monster, a Rival Rider, an Event, a Location (which will cause a new non-Location card to be drawn and added), or Rider Clash (wherein the active player must face off against another PC, for whatever reason the players agree upon).  The player to the active player’s left runs the active player through the challenge.  Cards have a variable Strength equal to the number of completed challenges divided by 3 rounded up.  Players have a Will, Health, and Righteous Rage resource, tracked on their player sheet, which may be spent to win dice-based combat or may be taken away as the cost of the challenge.  Some completed challenges are kept as equipment, bonds, or other permanent advantages - a player may only have 1 (or 2?) advantages, and any new advantages they acquire require them to discard down.

Well, that’s enough for now, it being after midnight my time and all.  Til next time, whenever I decide that to be!