Bogblins

Warning: this is a long one y'all   I am personally a huge fan of rules-light RPG systems, and with all the recent talk of Daggerheart , MCDM , and D&D 5.5e , my minimizing gaze has turned itself on the community's most hateable game (with some exceptions for the bigots): D&D 5e. Now, I actually really enjoy 5e in play, though that enjoyment often comes in spite of the system rather than because of it. I enjoy the focus on heroic fantasy and the emphasis on narrative arcs and character backstories. This isn't to say that I don't like the OSR or NSR - I actually love those play styles and communities, and their focus on emergent narrative - I just enjoy another style of RPGs too. So, having gotten that disclaimer out of the way, what's the goal here? In short, I'm going to boil down D&D 5e (as represented in the PHB and MM , not all the expansions) into something more rules-light and fiction oriented. I want to keep the core mechanics relatively sim

This is a very short one but something that I feel isn't said enough.   Oriental Adventures (and all RPG products like it - made by Westerners to tell adventures set in the backdrop of fantasy Asia) is Western fantasy. These stories are Western fantasies of Asia and Asian peoples and cultures, and they are Western fantasies of themselves (in highlighting what they foolishly believe the West is not).   Real Asian Fantasy (TM) is written by Asian people. Define "Asian" as you will - I believe Westerners who've lived and grown in Asia to be capable of writing Real Asian Fantasy. Western Fantasies (of Asia) transport the player to a world that is superficially different (ignoring the deeper differences of culture and perspective) and revels in exoticizing those superficial differences.   See The Mahasarpa Campaign . It does not explore South Asian perspectives on duty and community, but instead continues to play in the sandbox of temple looting and treasure-driven advent

Prismatic Wasteland has issued a challenge ! Here it is: "In January 2024, come up with a new resolution mechanic for a TTRPG and give it a name." So far, my favorite's Davy Jones Bidding , by the Illusory Sensorium (insanely cool blog title by the way). Go check it out ! Now, for my mechanic: D6 Tokens Each character starts the game with X [1] tokens and Y [2] skills. When faced with a challenge, you may spend 2 tokens to overcome it. If you have a relevant skill, spend 1 less token. If you lack the necessary gear, spend 1 more token. Nearby friends can spend up to 1 token each in your place, but will join in the suffering of any mishaps involved. Roll a number of d6 equal to the tokens you spent. If any of the dice show a 6, there is a mishap ! Something goes wrong, but you still succeed. If all dice roll 1s or 2s, there is an opportunity . Your character succeeds with added effect, new information, or gains back a token.   [1] I haven't decided how many tokens a ch

Update! You can find the v04 playtest here . Happy adventuring! Update 2! You can find the v05 playtest here.   This blog began because I wanted to chronicle the building of Jangli , my Indian fantasy Cairn/ItO hack. In typical fashion, I completely derailed that plan and started writing random other things. However, I have now completed a major milestone in my original goal - the playtest is ready! I'm going to spend the rest of this post talking about what I wrote, why, and my thoughts throughout that whole process. In the meanwhile, you can find the PDF here . If you have thoughts, let me know in the comments! Or check out the post in #wip-feedback if you're in the NSR Cauldron.   Oh, and also treat this as my update for the ADVENTure jam. It's all I worked on this week, TTRPG-wise.   Slay cover page, I wonder who made it   Introduction "Jangli is a tabletop RPG inspired by Marathi and Konkani culture, folklore, and history. In it, players take the role of bhadotri

Welcome to the ADVENTure Calendar ! The rules are simple: make something RPG related every day for 24 days (December 1st to 24th) and post what you make at the end of it all on the itch jam page. Since I can't imagine myself committing time to RPG content creation daily, I thought I'd alter the rules for myself a little. Instead I'm: Doing something TTRPG related everyday Writing up a review of what I did every Sunday (or Monday) On December 24th, I'll post everything that I made on itch, but not everything that I ended up doing. Only the content I created. Day 1 (12/1) - Temple of the Moon Priests Amazing art from Temple of the Moon Priests   I started December off strong with Temple of the Moon Priests , a one-page, system agnostic dungeon adventure. I ran the dungeon in by-the-book Into the Odd with a couple of friends. I had a lot of thoughts on how it went, and they'll slowly make their way into blog posts of their own sometime. To keep things quick I'll

I created a little d6 based random generator for Game of Thrones houses while working on my WIP Indian fantasy RPG Jangli . Since I haven't posted in a while, I thought I'd share it here: Random Game of Thrones (inspired) Houses Roll twice for color palette (d6): Red Green Blue Black White Gold   Roll once for environment (d6): Deserts Grasslands Hills Jungles (use forests here for medieval European settings) Mountains Oceans   Roll once for motif (d6): Bear Blackbuck Cobra Elephant Peacock Tiger Note that these motifs were picked out for a South Asian setting. For a more medieval European setting, try: (bear, dragon, fish, hawk, lion, wolf)  Roll once for outlook (d6): Decisive Grim Hopeful Loyal Proud Vengeful Rolling Something Up: Rolls: 1, 3, 4, 2, 2 Color Palette: Red/Blue Environment: Jungles Motif: Blackbuck Outlook: Grim   Interpreting the results: Grim and Jungle go very well together, making me think of this group as a kind of conniving, jungle-dwelling faction that