I stumbled across a bundle of TTRPGs on Itch.io. There are many TTRPG bundles on Itch.io. Yet this one stopped me in my tracks.
āTTRPGS For Trans Rights ā Ohio.ā
Hundreds of systems.
Endless Content.
Supporting Trans people.
All for five dollars.
How could I resist?
The problem with buying 100s of RPGs at once is that you never actually read them all. In fact, I was happy to read none of them, and just hoard them like a little ghoul. However, today, May 5th, 2025, marks the dawn of a new era. Henceforth, I will read, every day, some indeterminate number of these ttrpg systems, and review them in full. I will be as in-depth as I can muster, and give each its due attention. My goal? To eventually review all of the 467 systems contained in the depths of this bundle.Ā
Now seems like a good time to establish the judging criteria;
All on a scale of 1-5 stars, because thatās fun.
Originality: Based on how new the concept is! Is it a tired old tale that Iāve heard before? Does it break boundaries? This is mostly based on the idea itself.
Mechanics: Do the rolls make you feel like youāre doing the thing? Does it translate the premise into the table top?
Replayability: Well⦠Can you replay it?Ā
Variance: Can you play it a multitude of different ways? Think of classes, which provide different experiences every time, even if they have some core similarities.
Character Creation: Listen. I really value character creation. So I think this is important to assess on its own.
I have decided to chronologue this on tumblr for some unknown reason. Mostly for me. If you, a stranger in the void, have found this, feel free to peruse.
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This update schedule is not going to improve Iām afraid.Ā
Anyway.
RPG Time.
Oh great, itās another hack of lasers and feelings. I gotta read that ttrpg at some point actually, maybe I wonāt also dislike this one. This one is a simple premise. Nikola Tesla has been kidnapped. So. You gotta find him.
Who Kidnapped Nikola Tesla makes me feel like Iāve already seen everything indie RPGs can do and Iāve only read 20 (really more like 35 if you count my personal endeavors but I digress).
WKNT is a funky little hack of Lasers and Feelings that centers around the kidnapping of Nikola Tesla. Your character is being sent by the Brits to find him. Itās winter 1940. Thereās only so much prologue I can do.
Originality: āāāāā
I say this only with the bitterness of my heart and no special dislike towards this one in particular. While Iāve never heard of this idea, and it has some really neat twists that Iāll get to in a moment, it is another wacky and zany take on TTRPGs that has the same VIBE as every wacky and zany TTRPG Iāve looked at so far.Ā Donāt worry. I will still be glowing, in regards to the actual content. Just know. I am hiding a great irritation with the standard levels of wackadoodle.
Alright so look, this premise is really awesome, outside of that feeling. Itās cool, and you actually alter both the reason for his kidnapping and a fun twist on the situation with a die roll (as the GM). Itās awesome. Itās especially awesome because it can be anything from Nazis (expected) to Cultists (completely different situation) to the FRENCH? (who are getting him to build them munitions to take back France, in one of the ājustifiedā reasons for kidnapping. Only in quotes because they still call it kidnapping).Ā This is fresh and exciting! Itās not only a neat premise in isolation, butaĀ shifting premise that is always at least a mild mystery to the players. Itās an excellent bit of execution.
Mechanics: āāā
You have a stat array, of sorts, with sliders. Everything is a trade-off. Youāre good at āWeirdā or āScience,ā but not both, and then two other sets of those. The docked points stem from āWeirdā and āIntrigueā being odd, unexplained choices for stats. Weird is, I assume, supernatural, given its dichotomy with science, but Intrigue is posed against Investigation, and I do not feel as though that clarifies anything. The other star is because I intrinsically feel sort of middling about the rolling success system, itās a slightly less intuitive roll-under system and I donāt value the stat trade-off as realistic or interesting, just a bit irritating. Also combat rules are lite at best, which isnāt horrible, just not great.
Replayability⦠and Variability: āāāā
I might end up lumping these together in the future, honestly, but theyāre very much tied together here, for sure. Thatās because the replayability comes from the variance! While I donāt think this system is particularly good at being replayable, I think that the way they handle variance through dramatically changing the circumstance, thus also ensuring thereās a constant mystery, is just perfect to encourage people to go through additional runs.Ā
Character Creation: āā
The only weak point. The stats feel underwhelming, you roll for a ācharacter quirk,ā you get a āDieselpunk weapon,ā and idk thatās like it. Itās not impressive. As always, bad character creation is actually the most excusable, since with some extra effort on the players part you can get good characters anyway. But uh. Yeah.
Overall: āāāā
My earlier tirade has largely worn off as Iāve written this review. I really appreciate what WKNT offers, and that it is doing fun things and such,Ā and that itās NAME YOUR OWN PRICE EVERBODY NAME YOUR OWN PRICE
Check it out or something, for sure.
A one page DieselPunk mystery for 1 GM and 2-4 players.
Hey gamers.
I am no longer dead, more or less. However I have, as many times over, learned the futility of keeping time. I will be keeping review numbers now instead.Ā Also this is technically review #20, not #23, because of the days that I skipped and added to the counter. No more days.
The Sizzle is a 26-page TTRPG that was made for the hot mutant summer jam, which makes, I think, the second one? Letās give it a read through, and try to get back into these more-or-less-daily. Like every other day. Ish.
The Sizzle is a pretty decent āpre-bakedā ttrpg, made for a jam, with the intent to expand it out to greater things. Not finished, but playable, according to the rulebook. I will say, as an incredibly positive note, this could be a finished one and itād fit in alongside some of the better ones weāve looked at. I will be reviewing it as a finished one, since these are the complete rules currently published, but note that this is effectively a starting point for the rating, with real potential to go up!
Originality: āāā
I mean, hey, look, I have in fact seen TTRPGs do stuff like this, and this one in particular is not bringing the most new ideas into the mix. It feels very fallout adjacent, and mutating due to UV rays is a somewhat generalizable idea. Nothing it does makes me feel like itās brand new, but itās a nice take on a familiar concept, so Iād put it around 3.
Mechanics: āāā
So, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that this has a pretty intuitive system. You always roll 2d6, one āpositiveā dice for you and one ānegativeā for the opponents, adding your relevant modifiers, and if you roll higher than your opposition, you win. The combat system is intuitive, with the BEST initiative system Iāve ever seen. Initiative is based on the combat circumstance and relevant skills. The example given is in an ambush, the stealthiest would go first, trailing down that list until you get to the least stealthy. I have some questions about that in practice, but none in theory, itās tight. The damage system is taking stress and injuries (here written as consequences), which is always one I liked a bit more than straight HP. Some downsides though, are in the stress system and, as usual, the mutations. The stress system mentions it can be mental damage, like getting through a hard conversation, but I found that to be unexplained, compared to clear-cut combat differentiations. You can probably reason it out, but itās less precise than I would hope. The mutations are intended to be super open-ended, placing them into five categories that may as well be cosmetic, and with the ability to chain them to get āstuntsā which are entirely decided by the GM (here The Hot One, but Iām gonna stick with GM). The author does not want to outline a āmutation economy,ā which is fair, but I think underwhelming. TTRPGs are all about trying to solidify the world of fantasy into more mechanically interesting formats, and this one just feels like itās⦠undercooked. Iām worried this, of all things, will be left open and directionless rather than refined and nuanced. A great example of how to do open-ended up still mechanically interesting mutations might stem from Mutants and Masterminds (which has an incredible power system in almost every iteration, to my knowledge) ā and I would love to see this game steer in that direction (not exactly, but you catch my drift).Ā
Replayability: āāāā
Despite being pre-baked, and seemingly more one-shot focused, with a vague world as of yet, I wanna give it a ā . I think that it could very reasonably be used as the skeleton of a long campaign, and will award that 5th star inevitably when all the lore pieces fall into place and give the DMs some real meat to work with. As it stands though I think its (relative) lack of originality is actually a boon, thereās so much source material to draw inspiration from (like how DND can stem from Tolkien, or Arthurian Legend, or [as a separate thought, unrelated to literature] really any mythos of the older world, depending on how you wanna flavor it). Anything apocalyptic could be the basis for Sizzle, so long as it retains some sun flavor.Ā
Variability: āāā
It only has a three because itās pre-baked. This could be higher or lower in the final. Right now I think you could do a lot of different things with it, but as it doesnāt lend itself to any themes particularly well (though the book is written in a light, ācoolā tone), it feels like a jack of all trades master of none, but like⦠if that jack was also not averaging a 6/10 but a 5/10. It doesnāt have its own setting yet, so it works for kind of whatever, and does fine in whatever. This is the only category I will be fully lenient on it being an early version of, because I do think you CANNOT make a judgement call on something this UNintentionally open-ended. If it IS intentionally open-ended, that will be reflected in the final project, and itāll probably be a 4 star from me, Iām leaving it here for now. Maybe I shouldāve gone for a question mark, but eh.
Character Creation: āā
I mean with my complaints about the mutation you probably saw this coming. Generally lower. I like how Traits, like āall brawns, no brains,ā become mechanically impactful, but other than that itās just stat distribution and empty mutations, and without a world you canāt give them meaningful stories (not in a way that ONLY this system can provide anyway)
Overall: āāā
I like The Sizzle. Itās the hot new thing on the block ā er, well, strictly speaking itās a year old, I hope thereās more updates on it, none as of this year. Iāll be looking at this one closely, I think itās got real promise, especially since Iād be giving it a 3.5/5 if I was a coward (Iām not).
The Sizzle is name your own price on itch.io. Go check it out, highly recommend.
It's a Hot Mutant Summer With This Irradiated Post-Apoc Mutantfest
Unburied is our first with content warnings, so let me share them with you really quick-
Content Warnings: Violence, Death, Human Remains, Body Horror, Possession.
Skip this one if those rub you the wrong way, otherwise, letās unearth this post-apocalyptic zombie ttrpg.
This is like, really alright. Maybe the most alright one Iāve read so far. And just to be clear, I donāt mean alright as in best, I mean this is the most 8/10 one Iāve read. Not outstanding, but incredibly solid. Letās talk about it.
Unburied is a post-apocalypse TTRPG that takes place after the Unburial, when the dead spontaneously emerged from their graves. There are four different types of undead, those being Ashes (clouds of dust, like those cremated), Cadavers (more traditional zombies and skeletons), Rots (living embodiments of putrefaction) and spirits (operating through possession usually). The game is really about living in the apocalypse, having rules for a traditional GM and player dynamic as well as solo-play.Ā
Originality: āāāā
So, this oneĀ might be a zombie apocalypse TTRPG, but the four different types of undead, and them ALL being completely unkillable (theyāre unkillable btw) makes them feel new and interesting. I think maybe Iām scoring them a little high, but honestly itās just a fresh take on an old concept with very thoughtful levels of specificity in their discussions of how the world works as a whole.Ā
Mechanics: āāāā
These are actually pretty well done. So it works with a more standard DC system, they call it a challenge rating. If youāre doing something risky, you roll the challenge. Itās a d6, plus 1 if youāre using an area of expertise, plus 1 if you prepared, and plus 1 for each person helping. Now, the challenges range from 5 to 24. You may notice that at merely 5, even when youāre using an area of expertise and prepped, if youāre alone youāre looking at a 33% chance of failure. This, I think, is awesome. Hereās why. Firstly, it heavily motivates group tactics and teamwork, and you get some real rewards for planning. Secondly, it makes the whole thing feel pretty desperate and maybe even a little hopeless, which is great for the setting. The astute among you might notice that in a five player game (this is a five player game max) itās still near impossible to hit the highest levels of the challenges with everyone working together. Well, you can also take a sacrifice (breaking equipment, estranging a friend, etc) to roll an extra d6. The system seems, on its face, to somewhat necessitate making semi-frequent sacrifices, which is also baller. If you arenāt prepared, or you donāt have teamwork, or if youāre just unlucky, you will be making sacrifices just to succeed. And thatās awesome. This is a really cool way of incorporating the tone into the rolls. The point off actually comes from a general failure to address stuff like injury, which I feel is pretty important in the context of an apocalypse. People are probably gonna get hurt, and that probably should have mechanical impact, so⦠But other than whatās been omitted, everything here is great.
Post-Script: Hey, I forgot to mention this, and Iām not gonna lower the score, but the solo play rules are only okay. Thereās a small handful of prompts, with no tips for setting Challenges (something the game lacks generally, now that Iāve noticed), and I think that it doesnāt really work. They feel tacked on, being present on the last page and not discussed in enough depth for my cuppa.
Replayability: āāā
I could see this being a longer campaign, given that even just inside of the game itself it has really rich things to look into. What caused the Unburial? Will the players defend this settlement? Do they have loved ones to find? While this, in rules as written, is a singular goal, I donāt see why you wouldnāt move to the next goal after one or the other. The downside is, well, it doesnāt have any progression. I think thatās alright, not the worst for sure, but between that and the simple (even if pleasantly fitting for the theme) mechanics,Ā itās enough for me to bump it down from 4 to 3 stars.Ā
Variability: āāā
Itās got good variance within the system. Like sure, itās always kind of going to be the same tone, but you can do a couple different things in that realm. If nothing else thereās a lot of differences depending on the type of undead that you have to fight, and it seems like the game promotes fighting one specific type at a time. Which is good! Itās neat, it works, makes things feel different each time.
Character Creation: āā
The real Achilles Heel of this game. It has character creation, based on how you survived the Unburial, which gives you one specialty. It also asks you to come up with occupation, age, gender, etc, all very good stuff, all very necessary, but thereās not much in the way of mechanical creation. Usually Iāve complained about too many mechanics and not enough characterization, but this time I think that the characters have too little guidance in terms of fitting them into the world of Unburied itself. It is serviceable, to be sure, another 2.5 star situation, but itās what Unburied is the worst at. And if your weak point is āitās okay,ā youāre doing something right.
Overall: āāāā
I really like this one. Itās simple, sweet, mechanically interesting and coherent, and itās got some stuff I havenāt seen before in the sacrifice system. I do think it has weak points in character creation and solo rules, but those are really more nitpicks than anything else.
Unburied is normally 10 dollars, but is 50% off for the next week or so. I think this oneās worth your time if you have any interest in the realm of the undead.Ā
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HEY YOU
DO YOU HATE CAPITALISM?
DO YOU HATE HOW THEY PUT CHEMICALS IN THE SODA THAT TURN THE FRIGGIN FROGS GAY?
WELL WHAT IF THE CHEMICALS MADE YOU AN X-MAN INSTEAD?
Mutant Mixology is an anti-capitalist TTRPG where you play as a mutant that has gained powers by drinking soda poisoned with like - radiation or something. Also mutants are called mutts, which I wanna give credit to. Itās great for theming. Mutant has become such a relative neutral term thanks to its exposure, but mutt carries pretty heavy negative connotations, which works for playing the underdogs hated by society.
Originality: āāāāā
This gets five stars because itās all the best of a bunch of ideas. The soda is what makes you mutate, which is a point. Itās about saving a beach, which is a point. Itās anti-capitalism, which is a slight twist on the mutants as social commentary genre. I havenāt seen one thatās super explicitly (and specifically) anti-capitalism, usually itās hitting at social issues rather than economic/systemic ones, but maybe I just need to read more. Either way, it gets five stars, those points will make up for its later lack of variability.
Mechanics: āāā
The mechanics work just fine, you roll a certain number of die to interact with the āvaluesā present in the scene. Primary values are your main objective, like a volleyball investor game, and secondary ones give you bonuses for the rest of the scene if you lower them to 0, like changing the DJ to āunapproved tunes.ā You have 6 stamina, corpos try to lower your stamina and keep the value scores up, etcetera. You get to go through ātempo,ā which is like initiative if it was awesome. You pick the next person to go, if you pick an ally they get a bonus, no repeats (so you have to get through everyone once, canāt just switch back and forth between 2-3 allies, enemies MUST go before someone goes twice in a scene). They are pretty nifty, but they lack a lot of flair. There are sodas that give you specific mutations, and those mutations, mechanically, do nothing, at all, which is super disappointing, they donāt even interact with stats. You could homebrew that, but as a reminder, this is reviewing rules as written.
Replayability: āāā
I could see this being a little campaign deal. I think it struggles to provide a system that has enough meat on its bones to provide a compelling campaign, and that it works best as a relatively brief series of games rather than one that lasts ages. I also donāt think the mechanics provide enough variance or strategic value to really encourage creative problem solving, and they donāt have mechanical depth to encourage strategizing, so it seems like the scenes would be bland after a while. There are also no official rules around stuff like downtime, which sucks, I always like hearing more about what characters āshouldā be doing in their offtime, or between missions, or even how they find out about their missions in the first place. For something with a pretty specific setting, it can be weirdly nondescript.
Variability: āĀ
I mean. Itās hyper specific. Again, not a bad thing, just notable.
Character Creation: ā
Now, this is a really low score, and one might wonder why. The reason stems, in large part, from the fact that your characters consist primarily of 3 stats (fine) and 6 energy. Every character has six energy. I love systems that enable you to express traits about a character in their stats, and this one lacks that, just being 3 stats since the 6 is generic (and also doesnāt change, thereās not like levels or anything, so Iām not even sure how you would increase difficulty, thatās more marks off replayability). The soda is a neat concept, but without proper execution, itās not really sticking the landing.
Overall: āā
This is another 2.5 stars if I was a coward, but I deal in whole stars here, and if push comes to shove I will round down. I really like the ideas at play in this system, but theyāre expressed in ways that feel less thoughtful than I would hope. Less intentional than I would hope. Tempo is cool, but is it something that works specifically in Mutant Mixology? The sodaās neat, but do mutations even matter if they donāt come up in scenes (mechanically)?
Mutant Mixology is free, and prides itself on being pick-up and play. To that end, it succeeds immensely. Despite the rating, know that I really like this one, and would recommend you pick it up at some point. With a little homebrew I think it could even jump all the way to a 4 star system, so⦠check it out.
Play as beach dwelling mutants rebelling against corporate gentrification.
Hey sorry for dying, new job is draining and Iāve been busy with other hobbies. I will continue to do this. But the dates might get a little fuzzy.
Also, this is the real name of this TTRPG. Itās two pages. Pretty untested, written for a jam, listen, if it sucks, itās still getting a glowing review. Have you seen the title?Ā
Oh no.
Itās not very good. I can't give it a glowing review.
Guy Fieriās Bisexuals is a cooking show a la Hellās Kitchen, but with less shouting and more GAY! Itās adorable, in concept, consists of three phases: cooking, dating, and judging. All players are monsters, with Fieri as the token human. Which is awesome. Unfortunately, as it stands, it needs more time in the oven.
Originality: āāāāā
Listen, for a concept like this, Iād be cruel to not give it the highest possible rating. Guy Fieri in a proper cooking show is cool, I like the fantasy twist, itās beautiful. Unfortunatelyā¦
Mechanics:ā
I am going to just post the full statement below. The document says its free for commercial use (and Iām not even making money off of this), and most of itās on the game page anyway. Let me put it simply: The mechanics DONāT WORK. Itās a roll over system with stat numbers that, as written, mean you NEVER FAIL EVER, because you have to roll over your stat number (of 1-6), and you also add that stat number to your roll, meaning if you have a 1, you can ALWAYS ROLL OVER because if you roll a 1, and add 1, thatās two, so you win, congratulations. Not only that, you only get six points to distribute among the four stats, which means even if the system worked, youād be bad at everything.Ā
Replayability: āāā
I could see doing this a few times, probably, I think itās reasonable to want to play it again, maybe with different groups of friends, though honestly I could see myself playing with the same friend group a few go-rounds. Itās good, replayable, not infinitely, but for sure.
Variability: āā
So technically you can select different dating activities, and do different meals, and whatnot. Within the system and its provided lists, thereās only six, so youād have to get creative, and itās a very clear tone and style of game every time. I have come to realize that less variability, though, is not strictly good or bad, just worth noting.
Character Creation: āāā
You pick pronouns, the monster you are, and a goal, and some skills, assign some stats, itās good. Not immaculate, not anything inspiring, but it works, and the goal ensures you have some meat on their proverbial bones (since you might end up being a literal shadow, thus lacking literal bones).
Overall: āā
Itās bloody raw!
Guy Fieriās Bisexuals is a cute game that has all of the ingredients for success, but has assembled them in a way that makes it completely unplayable as of present. I would love to see something in this style that works a bit more, or explores the concepts more deeply.
GFB is name your own price on itch. Check it out, if only to mourn how close to being good it is.
a reality tv ttrpg of simultaneous cooking and dating
Remember Under the Willow, or Willow, as I will be shorthanding it, is about a date. Just the one. One date to under a willow tree. Yep. This isnāt going to be a glowing review. You roll a dice to determine how your character feels about the memory, roll dice to determine various things, and thatās it, about it anyway.
Originality: āāā
Iāve never⦠quite seen it done this way. Through a memory, and with an emphasis on the tree. Itās nifty.
Mechanics: ā
I mean you just roll a d6. Thatās it. It doesnāt feel remotely like it pulls forth the idea of the themes it wants to explore. Itās more like a writing prompt than a game, except itās also not an especially strong writing prompt.
Replayability: ā
I just couldnāt see doing it more than once.
Variability: ā
Itās the willow tree every time.
Character Creation:ā
Has nothing for it.
Overall: āā
I dunno man. Itās worth playing once. Itās a duo RPG. Go play it with someone you wanna date. Date them in the game. Swoon em. Something like that. I, for one, am not overly enthused. It was for a jam, which probably explains it at least partially.Ā I am unwilling to give it one star because it's still neat, I don't actively hate it, and it's got some nice, calming vibes that I haven't gotten to talk about much. It's a very lax TTRPG, great for something to take your mind off some stress and be sentimental.
It is name your own price, and very nicely styled (the rules look good), so I dunno, give it a go. Itās short if nothing else.
Part 2 of making up for lost time, letās clown around.
This oneās awesome.
Clown Around is about getting to the top of a comically large business building and telling a CEO to leave your circus alone.
You play with a bunch of other clowns, have a clown specialty, the stats are related to clowns, you get items, and itās a simple D6 system.
Originality: āāāāā
I mean yeah clowns are popular but did you make a clown TTRPG? Statistically unlikely.
Mechanics: āāāā
Are they the best Iāve ever seen? Not⦠really. The rolls are a d6, with a 1-2 being a fail, 3-4 being a mixed bag, 5-6 being a real success. The way in which you use each of the four stats (hand tricks, pantomime, japery, and Tumbling) is like, mostly clear, but a little more grey. Itās super simple, but it works for the tone, and the real reason it has four (nearly five) stars is because they so clearly mesh into the theme. It doesnāt feel like a new coat of paint over something already existing, itās building out a new, lighthearted game, and itās just a very charming usage of the dice and the items and everything. Also, repeated failure is punished by becoming a sad clown. In practice this sucks, but itās a cool idea. And if youāre too violent you become a scary clown. I like this. Neat way to tunnel the players into a course of action while feeling thematically appropriate and not forced.
Replayability: āā
Oof, sorry. Yeah, I mean. Iāll talk more in variability but itās kind of gonna be the same thing every time, canāt imagine doing it a whole lot, itās very clearly just the one thing. Itās the coolest one-shot, but uh, just a one-shot.
Variability: ā
Sorry. I mean itās hyper specific. Weāll get back to the good stuff I promise. This RPG gives you the WHOLE premise for the thing, though, itās module-like in structure narratively. Thatās fine! I still have good thoughts on it, but itās very niche. Theoretically you could homebrew it to be something else, but thatās outside this one.
Character Creation:āāāāā
You pick a class, but itās a type of clown. Rodeo, Circus, Mime, or Harlequin. Isnāt that AWESOME? Also, you get to pick a personal bonus and some items, and thatās cool. I dunno man I love it, it feels great, maybe they shouldāve emphasized some more about design or something, I just canāt bring myself to whine about its flaws.
Overall: āāāā
This is legitimately a great one-time game to play. Sure, itās probably one-time, and you wonāt be telling deep stories or writing epics with it, but itās fun, it bleeds charm, and I think itās worth looking at. While its simplicity is a great strength, its relative lack of mechanical depth and hyper specific setting and tone hold it back from being literally perfect. Right now though, I might even still argue itās perfect for what it is. The Sad Clown does kinda suck, since if you get unlucky you just lose your specialty bonus, but hey. What can you do? We canāt all be Lost Among the Starlit Wreckage.
Clown Around! Is name your own price on itch. Go buy it. This stuff rocks.
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Hello gang, I started a new job yesterday. So I didnāt. Do. The Post.
Donāt worry Iāll put down TWO today.
Still no Parsec. Letās start with Punk Rock Soup Kitchen. Do I even need to explain?
I mean it is what it says on the tin.
Originality: āāāāā
I havenāt heard those four words in this order before.
Mechanics: āā
So, here are the mechanics. Five stats, new variations of them, you assign a dice to each, from d4 to d12, DM sets Target Numbers (TNs) that are effectively numbers you have to hit to succeed. Combat is based on strength in numbers. Dice explode (you roll an additional die on crits). So why is it so low? Itās flavorless. It doesnāt make me feel like Iām in a soup kitchen. The TNs feel worse than just a roll-under mechanic, for instance. The section on GM dice is really losing them a lot of points. In a game with so few and so little in the way of mechanical nuance, having a bad spot can be a death knell. In it, the NPCs are expected to roll dice representative of their strength. Including the idea that a mayor (presumably a major obstacle) should roll a d20. The problem is that higher dice doesnāt mean better, just more variance. Like yeah, on average it might be better, but itās one dice, you arenāt getting the average. Strong opponents (mentally or physically) should be rolling multiple dice, or the game shouldāve committed to not having NPCs roll dice and stuck with TNs exclusively.Ā
Replayability: āāā
I could see this lasting a while. Itās a neat system, super straightforward, and if you like it, you could play a fun, modern, anarchist-based game for a while. I donāt think any part of it makes it intrinsically bad for that, if anything the simple shell makes it ideal.
Variability: āāā
So. The mechanics, purely, are not locked into the genre. But letās assume that we are stuck within the genre. Thereās plenty of things to change inside the small realm of social justice radicalism. Yeah!
Character Creation: ā
Thereās only one line for it smh. They use the word āetcā in it. This is the only major L.
Overall: āāā
I mean it is borrowing mechanics from other RPGs, but I think thatās understandable, no shade, it borrows well. I like the emphasis on strength in numbers. I like the theme. Itās just a little flavorless for my taste. Itās a well-cooked chicken breast with salt. Itās fine. I just thought it would have more.
Punk Rock Soup Kitchen is name your own price. Check it out if youāre interested.
Evening all! Wanted to comment that I saw the number of people giving this blog attention go up a bit and thatās really cool! Iām glad to see other people stumbling onto this place. I hope I continue to find other strangers that need TTRPG recommendations
Anyway. Still not doing Parsec, itās late and I have a job starting exactly tomorrow, so I will be doing a shorter one. Also skipped some stuff, it wasnāt a TTRPG, this is about 26/467.
Anyway, letās open our medicine cabinet.
This game is awesome.
So Elf Named Percocet is simple. You need a medicine cabinet, an arbitrary number of dice, and some pen and paper. It is the single-greatest thing ever (not really, but I love it). The way it works is you consult one piece of medicine. This determines your name (active ingredient), a gun you have (it inflicts whatever the side effect is, i.e. extreme dizziness or lethargy that immobilizes, etc), number of bullets (doses in a 24 hour period), and how long you have left to live (how often you take a dose). Now, I might personally change some of these specifics around, but at its heart this game leads with the idea that medicine is ānamed after the elves that died to create them,ā and takes a not-so-subtle position against humanity and industrialization. This is shown in the fact that you are, intrinsically, an ecoterrorist, thatās your goal.
Oh, hey, a little note because I didnāt actually mention it on my initial pass, this game is also a shitpost. Like it was submitted to the ā2024 Shitpost TTRPG Jamā and has the description of āmedicine cabinet gaming.ā Now what variety of shitpost is it? The awesome kind. Yes, I am gonna take this one seriously. I love it.
Originality: āāāāā
Hey. I couldnāt have come up with this. So.Ā
Mechanics: āāā
So you may be asking: What is the actual gameplay like?
Hilarious, is the answer. When you ādo something risky,ā you roll a dice (larger die for larger doses, smaller die for smaller doses), and you then hope for a big number. Big number wins, small number loses. When a scene ends, advance the clock of your death. When you die, you start narrating as the primary narrator, before that everyone just informally takes turns. Being realistic, this is incredibly vague, and while the bones are there, itās not super clear how anything is supposed to work. This does, however, contribute to the way this entire game sorta feels like a trip, which I really think must be intentional. I know Iāve given more mechanically thoughtful games lower scores, but the straightforward nature and fast-paced game style makes it feel deserving of recognition.
Replayability: āāā
I wish I could give it more, but this is definitely a once-in-a-while thing. Itās not intended for a longform campaign, given the death clock that is at most like. A day, if the medicine is very infrequent. Itās more like a quick pick-up game than a drawn out one, and I couldnāt see doing this super often even then.Ā
Variability: āā
NOOOO THESE SCORES ARE SO LOW NOT MY GOAT.
It railroads your goal and character creation, so you canāt change it up much. You could change the aspects of industrial society you try to destroy, maybe, but overall I think it strikes me as a slight variance. This game is always gonna occupy the same themes and feelings and thereās not too much wiggle room.
Character Creation: āāāāā
I refuse to give it any less, legitimately inspired character creation. Basing so much on one medicine and extrapolating out all these bits and pieces is just awesome. It makes me feel like I should give it a go, even just for my own personal writing. I dunno, I kinda love it.
Overall: āāā
Elf Named Percocet may be a little incoherent and concerningly specific, but the niche it is occupying is one that it fills with gusto and power. Something about it just carries a lot of weight, the themes itās discussing are interesting, the way it handles them confronts it directly, unflinchingly, I mean the words āFascists fuck off and dieā are written at the bottom of the page and honestly this whole thing just bleeds moxie. I know it's a joke in some sense, but this appeals to me spiritually, and I'd feel disingenuous if I didn't acknowledge that. This game fucks, I don't even care about authorial intent.
Elf Named Percocet is free on Itch. Please. Itās a one-pager. Please look at it. This is easily one of the gems in this list.
Quarters and Crushes is a one-page TTRPG that centers around the 80s, specifically an arcade, and specifically romance, hence, Quarters and Crushes. This game - this game sure exists. So, the idea is that you create a character, and then you exist within an arcade, and thatās it. Thatās the whole system. It uses a simple straightforward d6 resolution system. I dunno.
Originality: āā
Iāve never seen a TTRPG do it, but I think thatās for good reason, and reading over this one did not change my overall impression of it. Itās taking the bare minimum from its concept and applying them to some dice rolls. I can think of few things more played out than the 80s in popular culture, but if I could, an arcade in the 80s would be up there.
Mechanics: āā
Alright, listen. The mechanics of this game are a d6 resolution system. You roll an amount of die that starts at one, goes up if you have help or if youāre prepared/good at the thing. You pass by rolling above or under your number, your number being anything from 2-5. If youāre quarters-ing, you wanna roll below, and if youāre crush-ing, you wanna roll above. I like this. Itās super simple, very straightforward, but effective. This is also EVERYTHING the mechanics cover. Thereās not much in the way of mechanics. Itās sorta just. Nothing. I like whatās here, but itās very little, and it doesnāt make me feel like a teenager in the 80s.
Replayability: āā
I just canāt see a longform game of this.
Variability: āā
Itās really specific. Technically you can change the āproblemā of the arcade, but itās still a pretty narrow lens, and I donāt think thereās a lot of wiggle room in this one.
Character Creation: āā
You choose a style, an accessory, a number, age, and character goal. Thereās not a lot here, with only one mechanical implication in the ānumber.ā But also, thatās not a lot. I just feel like this is something where the player has to do most of the heavy lifting if the characters are going to be interesting.Ā
Overall: āā
Itās fine. Itās a one-pager. It has a somewhat played-out aesthetic, nothing super interesting. Itās name your own though, so if you think that you wanna be a teen in the 80s, go for it.
Hey, no post today. I know I JUST said it was important for me to do these, and I meant it, but I just got back from uni and everything feels hectic and I need a *little* time off. Just the day -- Tomorrow I'll be back to it. Look forward to either a rambly complaint about a game about teenagers and arcades, or a longform discussion of a sci-fi rpg.
So this is technically not the correct one for today but itās late and this one is promising to hold my attention more than a longer, more ānormalā one. It's more important to me that I do this daily as a borderline mindfulness excercise than that I do it *right,* so bear with me if the quality drops a little.
Pipe Dreams is a TTRPG about skating. Like Tony Hawk. Thatās what they say. So this will have to keep me up long enough to make this post.
Okay it didnāt hold my attention. What, you want me to lie to you? It was 70 pages of radical sk8r bits. āSk8r energyā is actually a great way to describe this entire thing. It really does feel like itās channeling stereotypical skater vibes. Not a diss. Just an observation.
Pipe Dreams is Tony Hawkās Pro Skater, but as a TTRPG. You make a skater and you skate. You get it.
Originality: āāāāā
Normally this would fall under āthing that is based on something but Iāve never seen a TTRPG do itā at four stars, but like. Itās skating. I wouldnāt have imagined it was possible. They can have this one.
Mechanics: āāāā
Taking from Ironsworn, the game uses challenge die and trick die (your die) and you compare the two to see if you succeed at the trick. There's no specific dm, only the scorekeeper role which gets passed around for narration and keeping score from tricks. Tricks have scripted difficulties, earn you a specific amount of points, and there are combo multipliers. You also get hurt, and thereās an injury compendium with various impacts. Thereās a progression clock system. All in all itās really well done. What I understand of it looks really good. Iām not in love with some of the mechanics to do with characters, but Iāll get into that with the later section.
Replayability:āāā
Because this game is meant to be played as a quick, arcade-action style thing, I wanted to give it five stars. However, I canāt do that. Why? Because Iāve played TTRPGs. There will be the obligatory rules argument, there will be people that donāt understand or that need help or that are just Being Evil. This rating stems not from the intended playstyle, which would give it a five, but a pessimistic take on how the game might actually play out. I am not super trusting in āquickā TTRPGs, not due to them, but due to the nature of those playing them.
Variability: ā
This is fine. I would normally harp on this but like, itās a skating game. Itās exactly what you want if youāre playing a skating game.
Character Creation: āāā
I feel like you make a spreadsheet more than a character. Thatās one thing about this system, it does feel like an arcade game. Thatās fine, donāt get me wrong, and if you like that concept it does that very well. But you donāt create a character, or a narrative, you make a skater to do the skating tricks and get a higher number. It encourages, implicitly, a minmax style of gameplay, due to being competitive, while lacking enough variance to make that feel super viable. Whether thatās good or bad is up to you, I just think having three āstylesā and stats plus a list of tricks only allows for so many different builds. At some point something is just the ācorrectā build, no? Perhaps not, but it strikes me that way.
Overall: āāā
Pipe Dreams is a TTRPG in the sense that older video games are RPGs, broadly. You donāt make a character, you optimize numbers, and those numbers fulfill a role. To be clear I love stuff like Final Fantasy or Fire Emblem, which I would describe as stat optimizing simulators in their earlier games. This is fine, if thatās what you want, I am not personally enthused about a TTRPG that plays like an arcade game. This is, though, very much intentional. The authors knew what they were doing and they knocked it out of the park.
Pipe Dreams is like 10 bucks on itch. If anything Iāve said has been interesting, pick it up. Itās, as seems to be the case for so many of these, not to my personal taste. But the game has an excellent, well-defined identity, and is doing some super unique stuff with its style and gameplay loop. I would highly recommend if you do, indeed, want to do sick tricks (by rolling copious amounts of dice).
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How many of these do you think thereās gonna be?
Today, we are doing 18/467, having skipped a few. Here are the ones I skipped:
TERF Defense: Itās about defending your house from TERFs. Itās like tower defense given some card-based rules, itās based on Gambit, which is a system I donāt know. I just didnāt find it super interesting is all.
Seek the Worm, For Their Treasures Are Great: Words donāt do it justice. Go look at it yourself.
Whimsynautās DND 5e Quiz: Cool, not a TTRPG.
Aesthetica!: Concentration, I donāt wanna play concentration.
So I am getting on a train today, to go home from Uni, and I was looking over todayās reading so I could make the blog post in the morning, before getting on the train. Like the child I am, I forgot that some TTRPGs have words in them. This is a 154 page TTRPG. I will be posting from the train, apparently. This intro is being written as of the morning, but it will be posted much later Iām sure.
UPDATE:
Itās been two minutes. But. This is a Game Masterās Book. I was curious, so I went to the store page, and yep, there is a corresponding Playerās Book, and yes, it is in the bundle. So today is a 2-for-1, Iām reading 300 pages of two books, and finishing off 18 and 19 in this 467 PILE. I figure itās unfair to not read the PB at the same time as the GMB, so yeah. Strap in.
What if DND was more problematic than it already was.
Sorry, I have to be that one friend thatās too woke today. Mhar Fantasy is a perfect encapsulation of ye old fantasy systems, featuring casual racism (a feature DND also shared until recently) and Gender Essentialism (that oneās fun).
Look. If youāve played DND, you know this one. Itās claim to fame is that it is more inspired by political and relational motives rather than āhigh fantasy.ā Itās not some āhollywood B-movie,ā itās taking notes from āArthurian legendā instead. Which just seems- I mean. I like B-movies. I love them, in fact. So.Ā
Originality: ā
If your main points of comparison are DND and the legends of Camelot, you are not doing anything I need to know about.
Mechanics: āāā
Now you might think Iām being too mean to this game. I will take this section to explain, in part, why I am not being too mean, because there are MECHANICS that correlate to some of the things Iām being mean about.
For starters, a positive. This uses a roll-under-system, the combat is intended to be lethal, I actually would steal these mechanics rather than play 5e combat. They have parries! They do overcomplicate things in ways I think could be simplified but overall combat seems super engaging and I dig it. Thatās about all I dig.
Now let me give you some hits from the mechanics I donāt like.
You have to gender your character, with an implied male-female dichotomy.
The above is a perk.
This counts as a mechanic, itās in a stat block. They donāt even let the demons be gay, can you believe that.
Replayability: āāāā
Yes, you could play a campaign with this.
Variability: āāāā
I mean itās pretty locked in against violence and high fantasy shenanigans, but itās got variance within the actual theming, especially with the world lore that it dumps across some several dozen pages between the two books.
Character Creation: āāāā
Thereās a lot of neat systems in here, actually. I would recommend glancing at it. I wonāt even removeĀ a point for gender since I already covered that. Oh, wait, you guys donāt own it and it costs money, so... I should give an overview of what I like, huh? Er. Uh. Itās got archetypes instead of classes, so thereās nuance within each āclass,ā itās got interesting takes on the way you go about buying things via an initial point system, it has flaws as a game mechanic and talents, too. Itās got a lot going for it. I should also really take a point off for race. Trust me. The races kind of suck. Thereās goblins, and the goblins are warlike and ānaturally aggressive,ā and treat women like āchattel.ā And then the cat people have a vaguely buddhist religion, with the āSeven Paths of Truth.ā And shamans are exoticized and belong as a religion to goblins. And Christianity is also here, and THAT belongs to humans, of course.Ā
Overall: āā
I just donāt feel like being charitable today. This one has cool mechanics to some degree but is so snooze-inducingly long (Iāve expressed my preference for light rules, but if you like it, this one does have some meat), filled with lore that makes my eyebrows raise progressively higher, and just bringing nothing interesting to the table in any way other than applying mechanics in a SOMEWHAT new way. I should be clear, rollāunder is not a new concept. Neither is parrying. I just like the way they did it. What I donāt like is just how⦠generic and⦠ānormal,ā it is. Does that make sense? TTRPGs are for nerds, but this bundle I expected a certain kind of nerd appeal, as well. I mean, itās for the queers (me), so, like⦠come on. But this contains all the regular implicit biases and lack of scrutiny of itself and the inspiration its drawing on that I would expect rrom a generic TTRPG. Itās accidentally built a setting where despite the fact that it wants to create a āmorally greyā scenario, it still has, in lore, extreme differences that are biologically programmed into each group, as well as SEVERE gender essentialism which really bothers me for obvious reasons.
If you are not That One Friend Who is Too Woke, give it a read. Itās not a bad system. If you wish DND was (mechanically) good, then scrap as much of this one for parts as you want. If youāre looking for something even slightly new, you can skip this one.