Indie Press Revolution (IPR) is a network of creator-publishers devoted to bringing you the latest innovations in tabletop roleplaying and story games.
Welcome to the Indie Press Revolution tumblr page!
If you’re not already familiar with us, we’re a distributor of small-press roleplaying games. We’ve currently got over 600 different TTRPGs for sale on our website, https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/home.php.
We work on a consignment basis with our publishers, which means a percentage of each sale goes directly back to the creators of the game. If you’re interested in selling through us, or would just like to see the exact breakdown of percentages, you can check out our Potential Publisher FAQ.
Obviously, we’re new to tumblr, creating an account as part of the wave currently leaving twitter. Luckily for us, our social media manager Nicholas is not! He’s the one who will be running this blog, you can also find him over @omophagic-beast.
You can follow us for updates on whats new in stock or back in stock at IPR, as well as convention news and just general indie TTRPG talk!
Oh and one last thing, for avoidance of doubt: IPR supports trans rights and BIMPOC creators and gamers. Fascists, Nazis, and TERFs can all fuck right off.
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Sabrina Hawthorne is BACK on the pod for a very special episode of Tiny Test. And what's that title? Broke Wizard 2?! That's right baby, the zany silly wizards are back for sophomore year to rest out some sick new mechanics that Sabrina is cooking up for the sequel. Listen in as Rhaena, Mo, Chris and a mysterious four character try to get into a party they are way too lame to be at.
Join our Micro Tier to listen now!
Check out Sabrina's work:
Working-class mages try to make magic while paying the bills.
Hey folks! So if you didn’t hear, and have been selling games on itchio or a similar storefront, I want you to know that a site dedicated to selling indie ttrpgs and ttrpg assets has opened up. Maybe take a peek!
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The excesses and hidden violence of our current, capitalist, society create wounds in the world from which demons emerge that hunt the vulnerable. You are a Radical, someone who has realised this and wants to fight back. It’s time to get MAD AS HELL.
Mad As Hell is a new TTRPG of anti-capitalist demonhunting by Evie Moriarty. This is a game of learning the tools of resistance, the strength of community and deciding that the horrors in this world are something you cannot accept.
Here's the site link to get NIGHTWIND RPG for free if you saw my earlier post and don't want to deal with patreon. If you like lightweight GMless games and atmospheric evenings with good friends, check it out and let me know what you think!
Characters in Fabula Ultima (A Primer for D&D Players)
So. Fabula Ultima is my present TTRPG fixation. It captures the vibes of classic JRPGs incredibly well and is just an all-around good time. You (yes, you!) should go get a few friends together and play Press Start at the first opportunity; it's a solid one shot that gives you a clear introduction to what the system is trying to do. (For the record: None of this is sponsored or the like. I really just like the game.)
That said, I'm writing this as a companion and introduction to some of the core features of FU and relating them specifically to concepts in Dungeons & Dragons (especially 5e). This is pretty simple to do, since FU is an analog simulation that tries to capture the experience of playing classic JRPGs, which are themselves a digital simulation that tried to capture the experience of playing classic RPGs like D&D. JRPGs began their own recognizable tradition from there, but even so, that classic TTRPG DNA remained; which is to say they're already in conversation, and now translating these mechanics back to be familiar to people who know D&D is a bit like closing a long, meandering loop through time and space.
The Big Picture
Fabula Ultima is a game with easy, lightweight mechanics for general gameplay and exploration, tight tactical combat rules that are dense but also snappy during play, and narrative mechanics that encourage players to influence the story directly. You're going to be playing a character built around four core stats: Might, Dexterity, Insight, and Willpower, and choosing up to three Classes to start. Rather than discrete skills, you'll be using your Traits (Identity, Theme, Origin) and Bonds to improve the results of your Checks.
With that bird's eye view established, lets dive into what that means for a prospective player.
Six Four Core Stats
This is one of the most visible departures FU makes from D&D, but also relatively easy to explain. The familiar six core attributes (Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma) have been condensed down to just four: Might, Dexterity, Insight, and Willpower. For the most part thinking of them as combinations of the classic D&D stats works fine:
The other big difference here is that rather than a score, each core stat is represented by a die. A frail, nimble character might have d6 Might but d10 Dexterity, and so rolls a d10 when asked to roll Dex - when sneaking, for instance.
Wait, No Skills?
Correct, imagined interlocutor! Fabula Ultima doesn't have a skill list. Instead, every check uses a combination of two Stats that may or may not be adjusted by modifiers. You're still trying to roll high and beat a certain Difficulty, usually 10.
Let's take a simple example of trying to get past a locked door to see how that looks in action:
Our frail guy above would thus roll 2d6 (Might + Might) if they tried to kick the door down, or 2d10 (Dex + Dex) to pick the lock, trying to meet or beat 10 either way.
You can also mix and match the stats used (and in fact, many Checks will use a combination):
In all of these cases, you also want to think about your core Traits and how they can help you, which takes the place of skill proficiencies.
Every FU character has an Identity (a core concept like "half-orc barbarian" or "lost princess of a fallen kingdom"), a Theme (the core emotion that motivates your actions, like Duty or Ambition), an Origin (where they came from like "Riverton Palace" or "The Veldt"), along with Bonds to other people or groups that let you influence a roll, letting you do things like:
Basically, the best way to be good at something is to play to your character's narrative strengths; even if they both have a d10 in Dexterity, someone whose Identity is a Thief is going to have an easier time sneaking into a building than someone whose Identity is a Ranger, but the latter will likely have an easier time sneaking past monsters in the wilderness.
Classes - But Wait, Can I Be A Ranger?
Yes! And no!
The other big difference between FU and D&D is how classes and levels work. Every FU "class" is a collection of 5 Skills that you can put one or more Skill Levels into, and every time you level up, you get +1 Skill Level to distribute (more or less) as you please. Every new character starts at level 5, and so you have 5 total points. The other kicker here: you must distribute them in at least 2 different Classes. This means that everyone is sort of a hybrid character, or if you like, everyone has a class and a subclass at the start of the game.
For some D&D classes this is very obvious - if you want to play a Rogue, you probably want the Rogue FU Class, which will give you access to Skills like Dodge to up your light armor Defense and Cheap Shot to do more damage to debuffed enemies. Then from there you can consider what other abilities you want to round that out. Want to be an Assassin that hits as hard as possible? Supplement Rogue with the Weaponmaster Class to improve your melee weapons. Thinking more Arcane Trickster? Entropist gives you access to controlling and tricky magic. This is all available to a starting character.
Ranger, conversely, lacks a one-to-one class here, but instead you can mix and match several Classes to make it work. There's Wayfarer, which gives you the ability to explore the wilderness more effectively and have a companion pet, and then Weaponmaster or Sharpshooter if you want to specialize into using ranged or melee weapons, and Chimerist if nature magic (of a sort) is your thing.
I have a lot more to say about this in future pieces, but for now you can hopefully start to see how open and flexible this build system is; it's genuinely well-designed in a way that encourages you to mix and match abilities and find synergies across classes. It's also very digestible: every classes' core abilities fits on a single page in the rulebook, with spellcasters and the like getting an extra page or two for their spell lists. Crystools is a fan website that has all of the Open content for the game compiled handily online, including a full list of all of the Classes and their Skills, for those who want to get a taste of what is available.
That Doesn't Seem Like Enough Spells! And What About Items?
One thing that I really appreciate FU for is how it tries to replace a lot of individual fiddly rules with a flexible system that's functional in play and works consistently across many different circumstanes. The two biggest examples to my mind are Rituals and Inventory Points.
The spell list is specifically a list of discrete combat spells that are meant to be used during conflicts; things like your Magic Missile and Lightning Bolt. The game encourages you to let players create minor magical effects without needing a specific spell (specifically, one example in the rules is letting a spellcaster conjure a light to follow a fleeing thief), basically covering the minor utility cantrips like Prestidigitation and Druidcraft in one fell swoop.
For more intricate utility spells, the game has a Ritual system that gives players guidelines for magical effects; if you are playing a character with ritual magic and want to discover any hidden magical properties of an object, for instance, you can check the chart and determine that this would be a minor Ritualism effect, requiring 20 MP and a Difficulty 7 Check to do. Everything works like this. In practice, it doesn't always cover everything, but it gives enough guidance that a spellcasting player and a GM have a strong starting point to determine what the cost of the effect should be.
Consumables are also abstracted; instead of a huge list of items and encumbrance rules that you're probably ignoring, each character has a limited number of Inventory Points, or IP. You can spend them to retrieve and drink a potion, produce camping gear for a Rest, or have some unusual piece of kit on hand, and then restock your bags by spending money to refresh your IP in town. Other classes have ways to interact with IP too, which makes it feel like part of a greater whole.
What About Combat? And Other Classes? And What Was That About Narrative Influence?
There's a lot more to say about FU and getting into the mindset of it from the starting point of D&D, and I aim to say it. But these are the key points that relate to making a character and interacting with the system at a high level; between this and a run through of Press Start, you should be able to get a grip on what the game is doing.
You've probably heard about RPG Trader over the past few. It's a new tabletop webstore that launched yesterday after a week or so of early access for developers to add their games.
Lots of smaller devs like myself and @takataapui have already set up shop- but if you're on the fence about checking it out, might I entice you with some of the larger titles?
The first and second editions of Cairn are both available at RPG Trader- in print as well as digital! If you go with the physical edition, you should absolutely grab one of these cool little notebooks while you're there.
Gila RPGS is there with Nova, Dragon Slayers, Wyrm and more!
You can grab Court of Blades! Court intrigue, forged in the dark? Yes please!
Plus plenty of modules and expansions for popular games like D&D, Draw Steel, Mausritter, Daggerheart, Pathfinder and Mothership!
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Another small patch this time! A number of adjustments across the board based on playtesting, and the introduction of a new Quick Action (Step) and Opportunity (Breathe) that’ll hopefully make combat feel smoother by allowing for some more flexibility. Also some more copyediting done— looking to focus on making everything more readable by getting more help soon, and then ideally to start implementing some content for Chapter 4 (Gameplay Expansions for genres like mysteries and horror, rules for social interaction or exploration, etc.) for a 0.6 version.
A full changelog can be found in the document for anyone curious. The biggest adjustments/additions this update are:
The Push and Epiphany PP options now refund 1 PP if the reroll ends in a Failure, mainly acting as compensation for bad luck. Shift can now be used after the roll is made, making it more valuable among the 3 PP options.
A new Quick Action called Step that lets you take another Movement, alongside some other tweaks to Movements (including adjusting the Paces for higher Range Bands). This should make mobility in combat more flexible.
A new Opportunity called Breathe that allows characters to recover their Speed. This is meant to act as the simple, go-to Opportunity if you don't have anything else in mind.
A TTRPG driven by the creation, exploration, and resolution of structured narrative “Arcs.”
ARCS: A Roleplaying Cinematic System VERSION 0.5.2 (ALPHA) LAST UPDATED: 6/9/2026 NOTE: This current iteration of the game is in an “Alpha”
TTRPG: Hearts of Wulin
Creator: @fengtianshi on tumblr, https://artfight.net/~fengtianshi
Character's Artfight Page: https://artfight.net/character/7646026.fang-la
Fun Facts:
1. His favorite disguise is as a street performer. He's very good at it!
2. His spiritual weapon is a paper umbrella.
3. Through cultivation, he can form various types of poisons inside his body.
[If you'd like to have your indie ttrpg character featured leading up to Artfight, please complete this form
TTRPG: My own homebrewed detective version of the Anime Campaign system :)
Creator: @candaru.bsky.social on bluesky, https://artfight.net/~Candaru
Character's Artfight Page: https://artfight.net/character/6944825.lily
Fun Facts:
1. Lily was born via magic, so the whole village raises her collectively
2. Because of this fact, she has no middle or last name
3. She is a huge fan of reindeer and My Little Pony
Character Sheet Clipping:
(This game does not use traditional character sheets. Lily is an NPC, and has no special abilities.)
[If you'd like to have your indie ttrpg character featured leading up to Artfight, please complete this form
Guess what? My newest TTRPG is coming to print later this month! The yuri mermaid dating game Mer X Maid is now available for preorder, and will be shipping at the end of June!
The full color 24 page book comes with 4 character cards, and includes full rules, instructional comics, lore and plenty of art! As a special bonus, preorders will include an hand drawn 6 x 6 inch original mermaid sketch by me!
Learn more about the game here!
You can Preorder Mer X Maid now for just $12!
I really appreciate your support and I hope you love the game!
Special Preorder! Print copies of Mer X Maid are now available for preorder and will ship at the end of June! The book will be 24 full color
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Yeld's free Monster of the Month for June is the Mermaid Donnla, created by community member Glucifer! A novice pirate who gets stuck with all the dirty work! She's a perfect challenge for Rank 0 adventures!
Before fantasy became popular, even before modern fantasy existed, its ecological niche was filled by the now forgotten genre of sword and planet. Glorious stories of adventures of John Carter and Dejah Thoris, of Flash Gordon and Doctor Zarkov and many other heroes and heroines occupied the minds of our geeky predecessors. This game is a revivalist attempt to bring this genre to modern roleplayers.
Blade and Raygun is a minimalist game suitable for solo and co-op play, with only 2d6 required.
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Whoh, what a year it was! Anyway, I am back with the second edition of Blade and Raygun!
The tumblr-exclusive changelog:
Complete system overhaul - now it works on the foundations of World of Dungeons, but is heavily modified. For example, your character can take only 2 blows before collapsing, but you don't start weak - you start as a hardened veteran of adventuring.
Changed how psionics work - from rare gift to a universal ability, but a weak one.
Added procedures for tests (that are structured like moves) and missions. There are way too many ways to play the game to systematize them, but the most common missions are dungeon delving, investigations and heists.
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On top of the game itself, you will get a whole setting. Agkoyui (specifically North-Eastern Hamme) is a world inspired by (mostly) Asian cultures, but the sources of inspiration are made completely alien. The setting document also includes a rehearsal of how some of the monsters are used by people of the world.
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