Scampir

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One Canuck built the #ttrpg tag and the #mecha tag. And that was me.

Cohost Cultural Institution: @Making-up-Mech-Pilots
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There's this impulse I have and it comes and goes whenever I fumble about trying to fit in another ttrpg into my life. It's that game I tell myself and others I want to play where we set it in some kind of technological visual language of the past. An SNES game, an abandoned MMO, the low fidelity lens crossed by crt scanlines. Blur the pixels, feel the warm glow on your face and so on. For me, the impulse is from the digital rpgs where I saw those rudimentary visuals and filled in the abstract with my imagination, plus wonder.



djregular
@djregular

I've got a series of TTRPGs I've been working on that I'm loosely referring to as The Blight Trilogy.

The overall gist: Supernatural darkness already exists in the world, vampires, werewolves, demons, cryptids, etc. Then one day, a malevolent force from Beyond™ touches down in the Mojave desert, ushering in horrors that no one's seen before. So far, I've got two games set in this world, you can check them out in my pinned post:

  • In A Red Valley: A Cortex Prime game, and the epicenter of the Blight Trilogy. A malevolent entity from beyond the stars touches down in the Mojave Desert and declares itself king of the hill among the denizens of the supernatural here on earth. The only thing standing in its way? A motley band of hunters, supernatural creatures that've thrown themselves in with humanity, and survivors of the initial calamity looking for revenge.
  • Comrade - The Allegiance: An Illuminated By Lumen game, and the East Coast response to In A Red Valley. Players are different sorts of creatures (and humans) that go bump in the night, and under normal circumstances they'd be at each other's throats. With multiple invading forces of opportunistic supernatural threats heading their way, these feuding factions put their differences aside to beat them back.

Right now I'm working on the third game in this series, a game set in the American Midwest that's been tentatively titled Flyover. The basic pitch: As various supernatural creatures make the exodus from the event that took place during In A Red Valley, the U.S. government has sanctioned the use of military intervention to intercept their efforts. Including scrambling jet fighters in domestic airspace. Incidents that result in aircraft and other foreign objects being brought down (and their aftermath) are known as Flyover Incidents, and the players are all members of a formerly clandestine government organization called Black Box, that are tasked with investigating (and handling) them.

  • RIYL: The X-Files, the BPRD universe (Hellboy, etc.), Midwestern horror films (Halloween, The Crazies, Nightmare On Elm Street).

I've also settled on the character types you can play:

  • Agents: Traditionally employed and trained government agents that through experience, circumstance, or active pursuit have found themselves with a unique understanding of the supernatural.
    • Their key mechanic is luck. Basically, their prolonged exposure to this weird shit allows them to survive things they shouldn’t, and the ability to attune to things they shouldn't.
      • Backlash: Bad luck. The universe's rubber-band snapping back.
  • “Witches”: A pseudo-military academy of magically inclined young students that have been training to be part of a specialized support squad for Black Box operatives. The Flyover incidents have greatly accelerated the timetable of their debut, the PCs are the first of their kind in the field.
    • Their key mechanic is reality bending. Most magic is either subtle or is limited in its scale. Depending on what they’re willing to risk, mages are able to affect large areas or numbers of targets.
      • Backlash: Literal psychic backlash. The forces that the mages are bending assert their dominance and damage them.
  • Conduits or “Lawyers”: Individuals that have deliberately or inadvertently struck up a bargain for power with an otherworldly being or powerful spirit.
    • Their key mechanic is the summon. The being that they’ve struck the bargain with manifests itself in our world and directly intervenes on their behalf. 
      • Backlash: The being takes their end of the bargain, which is some form of stolen life energy. This can potentially be fatal.

I haven't nailed down the full playlist to keep it in tune with the aggressive music tone with the other two games, but we're starting with Chicago's own Russian Circles:

As for the system, I'm narrowing it down to the following options:

  • Free League's Year Zero Engine
    • Pros: The license is royalty free, the system itself is light, I think I've got a pretty solid idea on how to freak it for the key mechanic and so that it matches the horror tone.
    • Cons: I don't have a handle on how to incorporate magic/supernatural abilities in a way that I like (the examples of magic included in the SRD doesn't feel right).
  • EDGE's Genesys System
    • Pros: The narrative dice system hews pretty close to the unpredictability and potential dread of the tone I'm going for.
    • Cons: People will cry about proprietary dice (even though the digital die roller is now free for all), their creator program is a foundry deal that as near I can tell only allows you to sell through DriveThruRPG.
  • Green Ronin Publishing's Adventure Game Engine
    • Pros: The AGE nails the "action" part of the action-horror equation.
    • Cons: I'm not sold on the horror end.
  • Rolling My Own
    • Pros: It's all mine, I have a very base idea a fun/light system for the player's key mechanic.
    • Cons: It'll take a lot of time, I've never built a system from scratch before, kinda don't wanna.

Watch this space for more, and feel free to reach out if you're interested in any of this stuff.


djregular
@djregular

Just finished up the first draft of character creation for Flyover. Sneak peak of the character archetypes down below: