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TTRPG Tuesday: Rai-da, Rai-da!

Well well, it’s been quite a minute hasn’t it? But we’re back this week, with another TTRPG Tuesday.  I missed the deadline for the 18-card TTRPG Design Contest, but I have so many failed entries that got to 60-80% of the way to a complete v1.0, and this time I wanted to get to 100%, even if just to break my habit of abandoning designs.  I got a first draft of the rules, the character sheet, and the cards, and I’ve printed, cut, and sleeved the cards.  Tomorrow I’ll film a little video (the last requirement of the contest) and put up a tweet with some pictures and links to the rules, and see if there’s any interest in playtesting or providing feedback.  Honestly it’ll also be fine if it just goes on the shelf, and I turn my focus over to The Envy of Ajax.  First though, I wanted to post-mortem my process a little and evaluate what there is.

First off, the game feels tough, but I kind of like that.  I think that in 1.0, there might be too much Trait loss and not enough ways for low rolls to net you Trait, so it’s possible to find yourself in a losing spiral.  I also originally intended for all 18 cards to be double-sided, and I still think they should be, it just really slowed me down to come up with distinct enough challenges and rewards, not to mention powers.  The setup still refers to flipping cards, so I should update those rules unless I want to make a big push to do the other sides of the cards - I could save some time by duplicating more of the original cards, the way I did with Rider Clash.  Not sure how much I want to do that though.  Maybe some of the simpler cards, like Robbery in Action or one of the non-combat relationship ones.

I should add pronouns to the character sheet; for the player, the secret identity, and for the Rider.  With transformation such a big part of the game, it seems foolish to omit that possibility, which has terrific storytelling potential as well.  I should also spell out how penciling in a gauge is used to track Traits and City Morale, and add the Unifying Rider Theme to the City page of the rules.

I don’t think I define Suits or Permanent Abilities in either the Gameplay or the Glossary, should fix that.  Properly split more of the rules into two column, to save some space and organize the sections more neatly.  I also want to put together a designlog, which can then naturally flow into the changelog if I get any playtests in.  Would it just be chunks pulled from these TTRPG Tuesdays to start? A good routine to build, I’ve done something similar for plays, but should’ve done this for designs much sooner than now.  A “What’s new”, “Feedback”, and “To-Do” for each date entry.  Maybe DFH could be re-coloured to be Danger-Yellow, Focus-Blue, Heart-Red.

I was so close to getting this in on time.  While disappointing, finishing a complete draft at all gives me the momentum and motivation to really attack the next contest that intrigues me.  Maybe I should channel some of that into Envy of Ajax though.  Til next time, whenever that may be!

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