Post by minitiate on Jan 14, 2022 19:18:35 GMT -5
So, forums, huh.
Some folks were talking on the Discord about roleplaying or forum games they'd like to do on here, and the idea surfaced of doing some kind of worldbuilding based one. I thought I'd round up a few ideas for systems and get a conversation started! If you want to participate, please give your thoughts on what kind of game you'd like to play, system-wise, flavor-wise, whatever. I'll edit the OP with system suggestions.
The Quiet Year - link - You may know it from the beginning of The Adventure Zone: Glub Glub. Described as "part roleplaying game, part cartographic poetry". You play as a post-apocalyptic community trying to build itself up during a chill period; each turn somebody gets a prompt to add a physical or social challenge to your guys' situation or deal with a previous challenge. Has focus on intracomunity relationships, ability to work together, etc. Has a defined(ish) endpoint. I have heard that it is improved with in-person over-the-table banter though; it's built for that.
Microscope - link - Disrupts the field of RPGs according to its marketing material. Non-chronological - you jump around the timeline and add scenes and events. No set flavor - designed so you can use the system to worldbuild any kind of society. At the beginning, you decide a bunch of ground rules for your setting (genre, tone, etc) as well as the start and end of your timeline. For each round, one player decides the focus (an example given is Cross-Species Relationships), and then you go around the table and each person adds a Period (long time, long scope), an Event (single event, large consequence) or a Scene (short roleplaying sequence to flesh out the person-scale details). I understand it's more rule heavy than that. I've heard good reviews for playing it in a group and singleplayer, to flesh out one's personal worldbuilding project.
Some folks were talking on the Discord about roleplaying or forum games they'd like to do on here, and the idea surfaced of doing some kind of worldbuilding based one. I thought I'd round up a few ideas for systems and get a conversation started! If you want to participate, please give your thoughts on what kind of game you'd like to play, system-wise, flavor-wise, whatever. I'll edit the OP with system suggestions.
The Quiet Year - link - You may know it from the beginning of The Adventure Zone: Glub Glub. Described as "part roleplaying game, part cartographic poetry". You play as a post-apocalyptic community trying to build itself up during a chill period; each turn somebody gets a prompt to add a physical or social challenge to your guys' situation or deal with a previous challenge. Has focus on intracomunity relationships, ability to work together, etc. Has a defined(ish) endpoint. I have heard that it is improved with in-person over-the-table banter though; it's built for that.
Ex Novo - link - City building game. More dice and counters than The Quiet Year - you've got factions fighting for power, mechanics for growth/shrinking etc. Pick your size and game length, roll up some starting conditions, then run your city through Historical Events. Takes place over multiple generations probably? Turn based. You also roll a d666 which is fun.
Kingdom - link - You make up a community big or small, and then make up a character with a vital role to the community, who you give some motivations, and also a role - Perspective (determines true things about the crisis you're dealing with), Touchstone (determines what the average guy thinks about the situation), and Power (decides what the group does). Roles shift around as the players see fit, but if nobody takes them there are Mechanical Consequences of your community being directionless in some sense. Take your guys through various Crossoradses and see how they and their community change and perhaps enter Crisis. By the same person as Microscope, but this one is chronological and on a months-to-decades type timescale, instead of an epic one.
And this one is more of an RPG With Collaborative Setting Building, but Legacy: Life Among the Ruins - link - PBTA, also can go from epic to small scale. Each player has a family and some representative characters therefrom, with a different playbook/deal, and you play out episodes across different ages of history with your successive characters. Seems rather involved for this purpose but it looks neat.
What do you all think?
