What are you working on right now?

The elevator pitch: Play romance novels as GM:ed or GM-less campaigns.

Why you’re excited about it: It is weird, unusual and fun. And I’m done with the translation, well, sort of. I probably need some help with proof reading from a native speaker. But the game’s all there.

What your hopes are in relation to it: To sell fifteen copies. Maybe get a review somewhere?

4 Likes

Soulum Scriptum is an epistolary game about making connections, You are lonely and isolated, your only connection being a strange postman that takes your letters and delivers them to others like yourself. Through the connections you make you will build your hopes and fight despair.

I need something to switch gears from my other game while I wait for art. I plan on releasing it as PWYW and really my biggest hope is that it gives people a low stress, slow paced way to play games and connect with others in the very isolating time we’re fighting through. I’m excited because this is a very novel design space for me, it’s been very enjoyable to write for it.

4 Likes

I’ve just published The Innsmouth Papers, my Lovecraftian letter-larp rules:

8 Likes

I’m working on Mosaic, a narrative/OSR hybrid fantasy game. I am a big fan of both narrative games, especially PbtA games, but I also find the OSR content coming out in the last few years excitingly awesome and creatve. I want a game that will allow me to use both the interesting, fail-forward approach of pbta games and the harsh binary outcomes of OSR games, depending on preference.

The game is to be setting-agnostic and modular, so that new genre- or setting- specific house rules may easily be added on.

The game started as a Blades in the Dark fantasy hack but evolved into something different, taking influences from other games such as Whitehack, World of Dungeons and Mörk Borg. I’m excited to see where this will take me, becuase I don’t have a pre-conveived plan what to do with it.

5 Likes

$.txt : game where you play talking walking real animals trying to get by between farm and forest (Mr Fox style) and get to touch hands and other sweet LARP-fu.
WIP

Enthusiasm : much, this is like the beginning of a relationship, everything is fresh and I dig fast

Goal : hit rock and suddenly understand why bodies are not used as game components more by TTRPGers.

1 Like

Cthulhu Deep Green, my rules-light game of mythos horror and work-life balance, is available in Print for the first time via DriveThru Print on Demand. Couldn’t have done it without this community’s support.

5 Likes

I’m currently developing Fantasy World as a free wiki-rulebook, here: tiny.cc/FantasyWorldRPG

fwcover

PITCH
Fantasy World is a game that focuses on dramatic fantasy adventuring .

Dramatic fantasy is not about soap opera melodrama among teen wizards , although this could be a lot of fun, please someone make this game!

Dramatic fantasy is about the very personal conflicts , internal and external, that turn a bunch of murder-hobos into a group of heroes. It’s about the consequences of their actions, and how they affect both the Protagonists and the world around them. It’s about the tough choices and personal sacrifices and joys and sorrows and scars and hopes driving the Protagonists through their adventures. It’s about the things that make you care for what happens.

When you don’t care, something as epic as saving a kingdom could feel like a trivial and bothersome chore. When you do care, something as trivial as keeping a promise to a random village kid can feel epic and fulfilling. What this game’s rules do is help you and your friends inject this level of meaning and engagement in whatever kind of adventure you end up playing.

WHY I’M EXCITED
Many PbtA games that I know of have amazing ideas, but are designed/implemented in a way that doesn’t exactly satisfy my taste and needs. I am very opinionated that way :stuck_out_tongue:
Thus, I set out to make my own version of a PbtA fantasy game.

MY HOPES FOR THE PROJECT
I would like to make a meaningful contribution to the PbtA-verse.
In 2 ways.
One is to fill a gap I personally perceive in the options available to play fantasy stories by way of PbtA.
The other is to offer a practical and usable example of how I wish a PbtA rulebook would be written technically: maybe less revolutionary ideas, but a clearer, unambiguous, more easily usable text.

11 Likes

I’m currently playtesting Fantasy World with @Alessandro_Piroddi, and oh boy. Follow this game!

3 Likes

The elevator pitch

Faction Paradox: The RPG

Time travelling voodoo cultists surviving (but certainly not thriving) in the fringes between The Great Houses and The Enemy in The War in Heaven.

Why you’re excited about it
I’ve attempted to bring this franchise into other rules systems and had mediocre results - I’ve done a one-off for Doctor Who:Adventures in Time and Space and have fiddled with Amber/Lords of Gossamer and Shadow rules for it, and ran a game of Companions (which is PbtA Doctor Who) and think it could work.

I’ve recently had ideas about a mechanic similar to corruption in FATE of Cthulhu, which I’ll probably call either Reality or Conceptionality… it’s also similar to Humanity in World of Darkness or Cyberpunk. A tradeoff for breaking the laws of the universe.

I’ve also had some interesting ideas on meta-time for how to do a time travel adventure where members of the party are in different times.

Plus I’ve come across a definition of The Enemy that I think is neat.

What your hopes are in relation to it
A darker take on Doctor Who, a street level view of epic time wars, a rebellious mischief to the High Council of Gallifrey and Time Lords in general.
Ideally permission to publish for the franchise would be good too :slight_smile:

3 Likes

I’m currently working on expanding a game I wrote for a contest : https://gulix.itch.io/foxtrot-whisky

Game was in french : 500 words, and a game playable in distance. Raw text only.
I’m working on a layout for the game, and some more explanations.

The game is inspired by Firewatch (the videogame). It features firewatchers. You play your day in a solitaire mode, exploring your area of the park. Then, you activate you walkie talkie, and speak about your day, about yourself, or else with your fellow firewatchers.
You never see each other.

6 Likes

Ooh, very fitting for these times!

I don’t have a title, but it’s a two-player letter writing game played by two people who are physically separated by distance. One of you is at war, the other waits at home, and you write letters back and forth based on prompts provided by a deck of cards and an oracle. You both pull from a tumbling block tower during the course of the game - when your tower falls, something awful has happened and you no longer write letters. The game is over, even if the other player doesn’t know it yet.

It builds on the mechanics of the game I just put out (The Wretched - Https://loottheroom.itch.io/wretched), which is a solo journaling game about being stranded on a ship with an alien lifeform that wants you dead. I’m really proud of that game but I’m super excited to take the work I did on that into a game that people can play together, and that deals with subject matter that might have some real emotional impact on people. I’m also really excited about the possibility of games that are played over days and weeks rather than hours.

I don’t know what I hope to achieve with it. The Wretched has done better than I could ever have imagined. If I can replicate even half of the success of that game then I’ll be happy, but mainly I just want to connect with people and have them tell stories that move them and their loved ones.

5 Likes

I just made a little tarot reading procedure for creating characters. The procedure itself is based upon Jonathan tweets Everway fortune deck.

This was originally made to be used with the major arcana of a tarot deck (which many of the meanings are derived from), but for accessibility purposes I changed it to be used with a regular playing card deck instead.

I can really feel empty on ideas when it comes to creating new characters, so tools to help create varied and non-stereotypic characters interest me a lot.

2 Likes

I tried this with a Game Chef challenge ages ago - it was a game set in Versailles around the time of the invention of the Tarot so it was in keeping with the theme.

3 Likes

Happy to announce I just finished layout and art on a revised version of Prison of the Hated Pretender that will be coming out through Hydra Co-op in the near future after the edit is done.

It’s a small introductorylair sized adventure for classic D&D style systems (notes for 5E conversion) and extensive GM notes on playstyle and mechanics.

8 Likes

My translation of The Dune Rose RPG is coming along nicely. I have made some early sales on DriveThruRPG, and now I have a native speaker who is taking a look at my writing and helping me transform it into more conventional English. :slight_smile:

Yesterday I recorded a chat with one of the players from the playtest sessions and we talked about the game and the translation. You can find the recording here https://www.nordnordost.se/?p=1187 or in your podcast player of choice - search for ‘nordnordost’.

2 Likes

Submitted Immortalis for the Cortex Creator Confab. Looking forward to feedback.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-EI1h4VdDX2TjTYsiUwfBj1EMjQWjKFe?usp=sharing

1 Like

Instead of finishing any of the projects I’ve already started, I’ve started a new one: A solo world creation game inspired by the second edition of the great How to Host a Dungeon.

Lesson one, which I apparently need to learn over and over again: Prototype often and early. Fifteen minutes fiddling around with improvised components and half-finished rules is worth hours of thinking and polishing a theoretical model.

4 Likes

Looked Immortalis. It’s beautifully ilustrated. There’s a feel of Amber but I wonder how “Utilitary” sorcery is managed : if it’s left to the Cortex engine or if it is precisely shaped by the rulebook.

Hi DeReel,

Thanks for taking a look at it.

Since the Cortex Prime pre-release came out to backers, we’re being encouraged to see what we want to do with it as presented and go from there. Some entries are closer to the rules as stated than others.

This design challenge was due by end of yesterday and we’re now assigned to review two other games from participants in about a week. I’ve copied and pasted the rules below.

Here’s some thoughts that I’ve written on the Discord server where we’re doing this:

For Immortalis, I wanted to try using trait mods that I haven’t before in my own Cortex designs, including distinctions, affiliations, and effect die to see them in action. Trait Set = Distinction + Affiliation + Approach + Arena. Using reincarnation as a variant for growth. The plan sheet is an experiment with Cortex inspired by some PBtA games that use projects. Essence is a kind of stress track. Destiny is a kind of track used to measure status, access to resources, and thematic pole structure between idealized order and insane chaos. Also using stress tracks for when Sorcerers modify Creation on purpose or accidentally. Gifts are high-level concept powers or abilities to keep it simple. Approaches and arenas are variations on attributes and affiliations to help provide more customization to characters especially for conflict resolution. I wanted to create a game with potential PC vs. PC interaction not unlike what I’ve seen in Smallville games but on a grander stage. I didn’t want death to detract from player experiences either so I feel this is a kind of operatic collaborative story in the making where players are expected to openly plot and mess with each other’s characters and their things (plans) to heighten the drama.

I don’t know if that answers your question about how “Utilitary” sorcery is managed or not.


Welcome to the Cortex Creator Confab, a one-week game design event dedicated to priming your own game concepts with Cortex. Using the tools found in the Cortex Prime Game Handbook we want to see your creativity flourish!

Starting May 1st and ending on May 10th participants design their own Cortex Prime games, settings, and tools from top to bottom, and help one another with encouragement and feedback.

  • Participants agree that their design is compatible with the Cortex Prime Game Handbook.
  • Participants agree that their design does not use existing properties or copyrighted materials outside of the Cortex Prime Game Handbook.
  • Participants agree to allow their work to be used in Cortex Prime promotional materials.
  • Participants agree to review and provide feedback for the submissions of two other participants assigned by Cortex moderators.
  • Participants agree that their work abides by the Fandom Terms of Use (https://www.fandom.com/terms-of-use)