I figured this was an area I was doing more and more work in, so I might as well make a snazzy new header for RPG Design. Mostly the work in this space is for my own edification. I am a part of an active, in-person RPG group that meets weekly. In addition, the True Crit Gaming Guild also has some active Role-Players in it as well.
Role-playing is really my roots in Wargaming. I was a role-player before I was a wargamer. I often find it easier to get into Role-playing groups than it is to find fellow miniature Wargamers. Therefore, RPGs have always been close to my heart. As a designer, I am still pretty fascinated by the overlap between the two genres.
I all ready have a Drive Thru RPG account that I publish on. Therefore, it made sense that I should finally give RPG Design its own space and header on the blog. If you search the interwebs you will find a lot of people with a lot of opinions on RPG design. You will find way more than you will ever find on Wargame Design. I am just a dabbler in this space, and if you want serious thoughts on RPG Design you should really go elsewhere.
I recently put a new game on my Blood and Spectacles page on Drive Thru RPG.
Over COVID, I became interested in Play-by-Post games on forums and other Social Media. Often times, these games used an existing, Paper-and-Pencil system with a dice system built into the resolution. I found this experience sub-optimal when playing in a primarily isolated, text-based environment. It was clear that the systems were not designed to function in the medium and the GMs and players were just trying to replicate the tabletop experience. Such systems did not excel in the emergent narrative form of Play-by-Post games.
Therefore, I set about to create a system that could be player in-person, but was really designed for playing in a Text-based medium where the focus was on cooperative, compelling, emergent narrative more than accomplishing tasks. The goal was to create a system that used no dice, and instead leaned into words as the way to solve challenges. The game was focused on narrative and using Keywords to drive the resolution mechanics in order to create collaborative stories.
Here's how it works. Players make Characters that are built using Keywords focusing on their past, present, interests, drives, ties, and tools. There are no numbers when building a character and all the details are Keywords. Character creation was intended to build fast, interesting characters that allowed a Player to lean into the role-playing quickly and easily.
The game is led by the Narrator. They act as the Gamemaster who run the non-player characters, set the scenes, and determine how the scene reacts to Character actions. They also place challenges in front of the Characters.
Challenges can be overcome by Characters who narrate solutions to the challenges using their Keywords. Players are encouraged to team-up and build on other people's Narration with their own Keywords. Link enough Keywords together and you can bypass the challenges. If you can't the story goes a different direction and those Keywords are exhausted for further use. This keeps the game moving quickly without a single dice needing to be rolled.
This Keyword based system is very loose and open to Player and Narrator cooperation. The Narrator decides the Genre and Time Period of the game. The Keywords allow almost any trope or character type to be pulled into the game. You can have a gritty crime drama, a violent war story, a silly cartoon show, or a rollicking dungeon adventure using the system. The focus is not on genre, but leaning into the story that your group is telling together.
This is a Rules-Lite system with a lot of Narrator autonomy to make judgements. The focus in on story-telling and collaboration. The focus is on telling compelling stories, having good character interactions, and having fun. It can be used for stand-alone One-Shots or Short Campaigns easily.
Content for Legend of the 5 Rings
I have always wanted to run a Legend of the 5 Rings campaign, and this year I was able to do that! I ran a mini-campaign called One Year in Rokugan. It was intended to by played by 4-6 characters from various clans and schools and focused on a relatively isolated portion of the L5R world. I ran the game using 3rd Edition rules.
The campaign was 4 sets of adventures focused on the four seasons. Once complete, the Characters would have lived in Rokugan for 1 year. Each adventure was designed to introduce new elements of Rokugan culture and motifs for an L5R game. As the players went along, they learned more about Bushido, the justice system, the Shadowlands, Honor, and more. It was often interwoven into the adventures and built as the campaign went. When I ran the game, we completed it in about 12 sessions, so 3 months.
Thankfully, I wrote the adventures down. That means, I was able to bundle them all together and release the One Year in Rokugan campaign to the Blood and Spectacles Drive Thru RPG Page. It is a free campaign, so feel free to check it out and give it a shot. It includes sample 3rd Edition characters, but is mostly Edition agnostic and no stat blocks are used.
Let me know what you think.
I have had a module for my rules-lite horror RPG Flashlight: Tales of Terror for some time written. I had even run it twice. However, I finally got it formatted all nice and made-up for proper presentation. The module is called, Insanity at Snowden Manor and has a bit of old-haunted house Gothic Horror, some mystery, all mixed in with some more sinister Monster and Body Horror.
Final Thoughts
- Starter Campaign for G.I. Joe: The Role-Playing Game
- A full Space Mecha Theatre Role-playing Game
- A second Episode for Princes of the Universe
Me encantan los RPG, muy feliz de ver que también habla de ellos aquí.
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I offer the occasional RPG review here as well.
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