As those of you who follow this blog know, I’ve been working on a role playing system called Those Who Play.
Well, it’s just gone live today and it’s already a ninth of the way there!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diamondblood/those-who-play-a-narrative-focused-role-playing-sy
It’s only £13 for a paperback copy of the game, get on and give it a look!
Any and all help would be appreciated.
Over the past week I’ve been taking a slight break as I recently got two pet rats and they have destroyed my hopes of sleeping. What I have managed to do though has cheered me greatly.
Those Who Play
After another round of playtesting I’ve managed to get the system working and now it seems that the core systems are solid enough to start working on polishing.
Big Badass Barbarians The Board Game
Using the Art Academy program on the Wii U I’ve managed to start drawing up card designs. I’ve also decided to simplify the stats to Strength, Toughness and Badassitude.
I will have to find an artist to help me at a later point but right now BBB is just a fun project.
Oculus Rift Game
This has been left at the side while I work on Those Who Play as I need to practice on my 3D modelling skills and coding skills.
News
Over the next two weeks I’ll be attending 2 48 Hour Game Jams (24th – 26th January and 31st – 2nd February)
I will be covering my own endeavours on this blog and, if I get time, interviewing some other teams for an article that will be posted on www.criticalindiegamer.com
Well that’s my lot for just now and I apologise for not updating more often, I will try to rectify that.
By Jonathan Callaghan
The first piece of art came in for Those Who Play last night and I think you will all agree that it looks great. It will still be some time before the system is ready to roll out as rounding up playtesters is proving to be very difficult with conflicting schedules and my own unwillingness to take an unfinished system to a gaming club.
In the meantime I am flitting between the fantasy supplement and the conspiracy supplement and whenever inspiration strikes, returning to Those Who Play and update the items and skills.
I’ve been spending some time planning out the Fantasy setting for Those Who Play and I am confident enough with the current playable races that I am willing to share them. As mentioned in my previous update, I mentioned that I am loathe to completely abandon the elf and dwarf archetypes. So, what I have done is redesign them to a point where I feel they are unique enough to be fresh whilst also being familiar enough to not feel alien.
So far I have created two “elf” races, a “dwarf” race and a “halfling” race. Each with their own unique powers and traits that should make them feel unique and, most importantly, balanced.
The Aeador (A-a door) are the most graceful race of the land, standing at almost seven feet but incredibly slender. They are very similar to mankind except for an unnatural slimness that makes them appear almost emaciated but their appearance is due to smaller and more efficient organs. Most other races fear them for they are long lived, some old enough to remember the beginning of some races.
Commonly they have hair in shades of white or silver, cutting this hair is only done when one wishes to forget a tragic experience. Strangely, this seems to work. Their hair does not grow fast (10 centimetres per year) so unless an Aeador lives a long and happy life, their hair rarely becomes a problem. Ponytails, pleats and knots are common amongst the Aeador, turbans and head wraps are commonly worn to keep longer hair practical.
Aeador share little in common with the other races and are encouraged to keep it this way, their closest kin Sylfa act as mediators between the Aeador and the other races.
The greatest power of the Aeador is their ability to see beyond mortal perception. Depending on their lineage (See Aeador: Beginnings) they can see the realms of magic or the dead. Although this ability cause’s great strain on most as the power has waned through the generations, leaving most Aeador unable to perform this feat more than once per day and even then only for a few minutes at most.
Close cousins to the Aeador, the Sylfa (Seal-fa) are denizens of the forests instead of cities. They craft homes amongst the branches, not out of them.
Standing at only five feet, the Sylfa are much shorter than their cousins but have speed and strength to rival the Aeador. In order to stay hidden amongst the trees, the Sylfa match their forest in garb and appearance as such dyed hair is common amongst the Sylfa.
Whilst being relatives of the Aeador, the Sylfa are much closer to humans in appearance except that they are leaner and smaller and have longer hands and feet. The most startling difference are their elongated canines which resemble those of an ape and have enough power to tear a human’s throat out.
The Sylfa live in small groups, no more than twenty to a clan and tend to be very territorial though nomadic clans do exist.
With their natural ability to blend into the forest and incredibly light step, the Sylfa are exceptional at going undetected.
With bones infused with precious ores and crystal growths protruding from their arms. The Durann (Du-ran) are a hardy race with many natural traits that make them masters at war, craft and mining. Standing at barely four foot the Durann are stout creatures akin to dwarves in all manners except for their more earthy roots.
The colour of a Durann’s crystals shows their heritage, though as the colours have mixed throughout the generations, only the pure-blooded can properly trace their heritage back to the first families. The intensity of a Durann’s crystals also display their emotions with a dull crystal marking a Durann as depressed and a glowing crystal showing happiness or another powerful emotion. Because of this, Durann miners are often chosen for their cheery disposition which helps to illuminate the vast tunnels of their homeland.
Durann are social creatures and as such like to look impressive, often this takes the form of jewellery, tattoos or impressive hair and facial hair. To most these appear to be simple tribal designs but there is a deeper meaning to every design, usually denoting skills, family trees, positions, titles and feats they have performed.
Durann are exceptionally tough and are able to illuminate up to ten feet around themselves if they focus on their crystals.
The Piak (Pea-ak) are a peculiar race in that they are so unlike their neighbours. Standing at a meagre two foot and being clad in a bark like substance, these spritely farmers often go unnoticed or even forgotten. The Piak wear a full body suit of bark made from the trees of the forests in order to hide what they look like, this has gone on for so long even the Piak don’t know why they do it.
Underneath the bark the Piak are a pale blue and have the physique of a toddler but with enough strength to keep their symbiotic partners under control. Piak appear to have amphibious heritage as they have webbing between their three fingers and toes and rudimentary gills on their neck.
The Piak are farmers, but they are also nomadic loners, to get the best of both worlds the Piak have formed a symbiotic relationship with the Kip.
The Kip are a species of giant tortoise that has a dip in the top of its shell that the Piak fill with soil and use as farmland. In repayment the Kip are fed some of the produce and any copper that the Piak makes from trade.
Kip can range from anywhere between four foot to six foot long with the dip in their shell taking up almost half their length and width. To utilise the space, Piak plant small, quick growing vegetables or will grow one fruit bush.
Piak have a knack for agriculture, an unnatural knack it would seem as the Piak are able to sing to the flora and make it grow in 1/10th the time. They also have a gift for languages as Piak are able to attune their vocal chords to mimic any spoken language as long as the target holds the same note for a few seconds. They may only hold one language at a time.
Back to the point
These are only the first four with many more to come. Tell me what you think in the comments, put forth your own ideas if you want. If I like it, I’ll put it in and credit you.
Thanks for reading and if you like what you just read, follow for more.
I’m working on the races for the Those Who Play fantasy supplement and it occurred to me that whilst I am creating different versions of the typical elves and dwarves, I am loathe to remove them completely.
Does anyone else ever feel like this when writing fantasy or am I just unimaginative?
I finally managed to capture more than one playtester and had a short playtest of the system. As it turns out, the choice of dice made the whole thing fairly broken when working in a group. When it was being tested before, there was only two of us, one player and one GM. So one person could only build themselves so well but once three players were playing, every possible role was filled, even if they weren’t equipped for the situation.
To fix this, I’m going to be testing different dice (12 sided, 20 sided and Dice pools) and increasing the bonus skills give (Either through fixed numbers or adding die to the dice pool). This should increase the possibility of failure and make players feel as if they are contributing to the experience by bringing their own skills, instead of being as able as everyone else.
Thankfully the character creation is still quick and enjoyable and gives player’s a good idea of how their character looks and acts. So that isn’t a problem.
So next up is to get some more playtesting done with different types of dice, different skill bonuses and to see what works best.
After attending Games West (A talk held at my university where some industry professionals talked to us about different aspects of the industry) I have decided to make my own pen and paper RPG.
The idea for the system and the core of the game is to explain or remove the tropes that seperate game from story in typical pen and paper (pnp) games.
Those who play seeks to remove this by involving the players as forces in the game, characters seek these forces out in order to gain power, earn fame or get revenge.
I will post the first draft here when it is completed and if it gets decent reception then I will work on getting proper art for the book and see about making physical copies!
dannynat20 