#tree game

Dexter!!!!

drawing i did for my tree game campaign tomorrow instead of prepping! maybe ill do a full size sketch of an important scene every week :o (my players are mostly 11 year olds they will eat this shit up)(i can always make stat blocks at the last minute while they are tinkering with their characters for half an hour at the start of every session)

thanks so much @dog-with-anxiety i could not have done this without you!!! you are seriously so good at drawing animals <3

[#tree game is my skill-tree based fantasy roleplaying system. if you wanna play, talk to me ab it]

i suddenly felt like doing a ton of art today, so lets show off my favorite feature of my roleplaying system: Modular Species Trees!

in a typical fantasy ttrpg, you'll choose a single "race"- a fictional species with certain abilities (and stereotypes). but my very first rule when designing tree game was (and is): ALL character abilities go in skill trees.

so every species of humanoid in my world has its own tree of innate abilities. each of them is 7 points deep; the number of points you get at character creation. you can spend as many of your starting points in a species tree as you want, or none at all, resulting in a gradient from "regular human" to "mythical fantasy humanoid":

a character who has 1 point in drakeling might be indistinguishable from one who hasn't- in fact, that node only has cultural abilities in it, so it would work just as well for a character who grew up in a drakeling community but isn't descended from drakelings.

meanwhile a character with more drakkish blood has slit pupils, scattered scales, clawed feet, very little hair- depending on how much of their genetics they share with "true" 7 pt drakelings.

AND THEN

now that every species is nicely broken down into modular abilities...

...combining them is the easiest thing in the world.

your character is equal thirds dwarvish, avian, and goblin? sure. want to be half elf and a fifth gorgon? no problem. one of my playtesters drew up a "mooshroom" character who's half minotaur and half myconoid the other day. it just works.

*as far as the worldbuilding goes: i don't have an explanation for why there are many distinct intelligent species of humanoid which can all interbreed. extreme divergent evolution perhaps? conditions would have to be pretty weird for all of these civilizations to develop in parallel. but hey, its fantasy and ultimately getting to play as a humanoid chameleon is more fun than theorizing about evolutionary history for hundreds of hours.

anyway! tree game is a roleplaying/combat system where all abilities are rooted in skill trees. its conception 4ish years ago was based on my only having played D&D and wanting to fix some of my least favorite features of that system. notably:

[every weapon feels the same] tree game has a skill tree for each weapon

[magic is busted] tree game magic is less for dealing damage, more for creatively manipulating the world

[hit points and armor class don't make sense] tree game has big hit points and defensive options instead of expecting you to tank hits

[character creation is slow and confusing for new players] tree game has everything in the skill trees. yes even spells. yes even species. only thing that's not a skill tree is your equipment.

[lots of rules] tree game stores as many rules as possible in the trees themselves. if you know how to grapple, the grappling rules are on your character sheet.

tree game is more tactical than D&D but it's still pretty accessible to new players which continues to surprise and delight me

Lord Frederick Thorn of Pendon is a jovial nobleman with thick brown hair (probably a wig) and a white mustache and beard. He is in charge of the guilds of Pendon and various internal affairs. He enjoys the occasional "monster hunt" with other nobles (which mostly involves culling lesser predators with the help of a large hunting party- for sport.) and has many trophies. He loves his dog Dexter more than almost anything else in the world; but he loves the other Lord Thorn of Pendon slightly more.

The other Lord Thorn is partly elvish. He isn't as rowdy as his husband- he tends to smile gently where Frederick would guffaw with laughter. He is the more active head of Pendon's government and manages trade with other cities. At the moment he is rather more composed than Frederick, who seems to be deeply upset about something.

hey if you want to playtest a ttrpg with me over discord, hit me up. bring a mutual and go on adventures together ^^

no roleplaying experience required!

tree game is a combat system for fantasy games designed with a few goals in mind:

use skill trees to make character creation fast and simple, with as few moving parts as possible. (99% of a character's abilities are gained from skill trees)

use skill trees to make characters as modular and customizable as possible (no classes! unique gradual species system. spells are in the trees and anyone can learn them)

keep the core roles as short as possible- put most of the rules directly into the relevant skill trees. (for example, grappling is an ability you can learn. if your character is capable of initiating a grapple, then the grappling rules will be on your character sheet)

encourage improvisation (abilities tell you their limitations but not how to use them. spells are flexible)

use my experience playing belegarth and practicing various weapons to make each weapon feel distinct (every weapon has its own tree of abilities!)

fix some of my least favorite things about D&D

some other facts about the system:

hit points are big. you will have 2 or 3 of them to start. most attacks do 1 damage. combat is about landing hits and not getting hit, rather than maximizing dps.

you have a random number of action points each round of combat. this ensures every turn will be unique and makes combats feel much more dynamic and fluid. if you've ever played a barbarian in D&D you probably know why this is a big deal

hard (ish) magic system. no healing magic. spells are multipurpose tools rather than solutions to specific problems.

lots of cool mechanics invented by smart people i've played with over the years

original fantasy setting lovingly crafted by yours truly v.v #novea

constant WIP so things are moving around very fast :D this is NOT a complete or finished game, but it is extremely playable