#ryu kon

RPGs.

I have been getting into a lot more RPG stuff as of late. (watching it, playing it, MAKING IT) it's crazy. I think it's the stories that really get me, really draws me in. The twitch streamed RPG shows Critical Role, High Rollers DnD, 'Dice, Camera, Action', and the Acquisitions Inc. crew keep me checking the calendar to see what day it is. The shows are so good and different and awesome if you can follow them (each episode is no less than a half-hour and usually met or exceed the 3 hour mark.) I've tried watching some other RPG/DND shows but for some reason those are the ones that I can watch consistently and with wide-eyed anticipation.

In my down-time I started playing Final Fantasy 5 again for the 30 bajillionth time to hopefully finish it for the first time but my heart really wasn't in it. While playing that I got an idea to make an RPG to play with some people I know so I got to work on what I jokingly titled...

It's a play on the 'Tomb of Horrors' module which is (as I understand it) a ridiculously hard and unforgiving setting designed with traps upon traps with expert players in mind. I've never played it and don't think I would play it because it seems designed to make you rip up your character sheet. Speaking of which, there is a video of a group playing ToH for child's play charity and they were getting new characters every few minutes which made for good entertainment as well as white noise for when you're working.

I used the ToH and Fighting Fantasy novels as a theme and (hopefully) built a card-based-combat-survival-horror-tabletop-RPG-that-is-accessible-to-total-noobs-and-old-people-and-also-for-no-money. The premise is that a group of strangers ends up in a house which (surprise, surprise) is haunted and they have to find and stop an occultist before they summon bad stuff. It's a bit basic, I'll admit and it's been done a zillion times by a zillion other people who are undoubtedly better at it than I am but I wanted to make something that gives that sense of doom and mystery/puzzle solving that you would get from a good game or Netflix series (seriously, Stranger Things on Netflix is really good if you haven't seen it). I'm aware that there are plenty of games and systems published that are perfectly streamlined to handle new players and GMs but I don't know them and I think by the time I acquire them, learn them, and prepare to run them everyone I know personally will be uninterested. What I came up with compensates for time, learning curve, player availability, and kids. I have yet to playtest it but it ought to be fairly short seeing how it's basically a dungeon with 3 or so floors and a handful of mandatory bosses/puzzles. The characters, combat and 'ability checks' are all made using a deck of cards with the jokers added to 1of 4 stats which spell out S.W.A.G. I needed to remove the dice element for simplicity (You do something,You DRAW) and convenience (Little kids and small, easily swallowed dice is a bad idea). An added constraint (partially arbitrary) is that when the deck runs out, it gets re-shuffled and the 'DOOM' clock is moved ahead. The goal of the game is to get out before midnight when the house is consumed by the evil being summoned somewhere on the grounds. On Friday, or at the latest Sunday I'll run this and tweak some things for later use (as if this could wait until October).

Now for the random flailing:

Stranger Things is awesome, if you haven't watched it yet. It's like R.L. Stine and Wes Craven co-wrote a Netflix series  using John Hughes' typewriter. I have questions about the ending but it was a good season 1 (fingers crossed).

Jessica Jones, Daredevil seasons 1&2, are good as well if you haven't already seen them. Waiting on Luke Cage and Iron Fist to come out to.

Steven Universe is back and brings a smile to my face when they reference anime and stuff.