Bogblins

For a while I've been playing around with really minimalist RPGs like Primeval 2d6 , Into the Odd , and Dungeon World , and I'm absolutely loving it. Without the weight of rules, the players are immersed in the fiction continuously, and are rarely pulled out of the game and into mechanics.   Basically, I have a lot of thoughts about minimalist RPGs, and I want to write them out, so we're going to do a four part series! It was all originally one big thing, but that got unwieldy and hard to edit, so we'll break it down like this: 1. What Makes a Good Character? - essentially outlining the bare minimum requirements for an RPG character, and how the system needs to support it. 2. Fantastic Mechanics and Where to Find Them - discussing the core mechanic and supplementary mechanics, and what role mechanics should play in the game. 3. Genre Imitation and Laser Swords - crafting an example minimalist RPG from this framework, based on Star Wars generally, but especially Star...

The colonizer is enamoured . He is in love with the world, with its vibrant cultures and beautiful nature - but he cannot truly appreciate it. The colonizer hurts everything he loves because possession, subjugation, and hierarchy are the only ways in which he may conceive of the world. The colonizer loves the dances of the people and so he chains women in his palace. The colonizer loves the ferocity of the tiger and so he mounts its head on the wall. The colonizer loves the world and so he must mutilate it to make it his. Once mutilated, it is no longer the same world he loved before, and so the colonizer is always starving and hunting.   The colonizer is proud . He thinks himself the center of the world and the greatest thing in it, and everything around him is valued (truly valued, not simply lusted after) in accordance with how similar they are to him. The colonizer sees himself in the despotic tyrant, and so he speaks cordially with him. But his skin is too dark, his religion t...

Welcome back everyone! I have finally returned to my blog after a weirdly long hiatus, and hopefully I'll be able to blog again about every one to two weeks. Things have just been very busy lately.   In this post I'm going to return to the Combat OSR that I've played around with before and revisit it in more depth. Hopefully by the end of this post I'll have a list of core principles and some suggestions for houserules and gameplay changes. I'm also going to start it off with some musings on motivations and play cultures - feel free to skip that if you'd like.   Motivations The reason I'm revisiting the Combat OSR is due to a recent playtest of Jangli I ran. Character creation went well, the actual gameplay went fine, and when a fight came up the party jumped right in, rather than running like a good OSR party might do. Part of the reason they fought was because this group of players wasn't my usual Mausritter table and weren't super accustomed to...

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 bhadot...

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 fa...