I decided to focus a bit more on getting through some RPGs this month. There were a couple of quick wins and a couple of lengthy reads, albeit fun ones.

The Veil: Cyberpunk RPG

By Samjoko Publishing & Fraser Simons

Read before? No

Played? No

I’ve backed each of Fraser Simons’ RPGs, including multiple Veil-branded games, but I’ve yet to read this one, even though it was the first one I backed. I love Hack the Planet by him (that’ll be later in this marathon), but this one’s a bit weird.

This is a Powered by the Apocalypse cyberpunk game in a world where the virtual world is projected on top of the physical one. There are several interesting, strange playbooks with a number of different sources in cyberpunk media. The biggest twist is that the stats are emotions. You perform better or worse in different emotional states, but you need to keep from spamming the same emotion of you spike it, making things generally worse.

There are so many playbooks in this book and they all take a bit of explaining:

• The Apparatus is a new AI in a physical body
• The Architect is able to change the digital environment around them
• The Attached has a relationship with a strange object
• The Catabolist is obsessed with grafting more cyberwear onto themselves
• The Dying is is well… dying. They have a limited time here, but a gift that this state grants them, too
• The Empath is able to better deal with emotions, a core element of the mechanics
• The Executive is involved in the business side of cyberpunk fiction with all the horrors that includes
• The Honed is a rare person without cyberpunk upgrades
• The Honorbound is all about obligations and social currency
• The Onomastic is unique, strange and hunted
• The Seeker is someone with faith, which can give them information beyond what the cyberpunk world normally can
• The Wayward explores the idea of something ‘more’ than just the relationship between person and machine, bringing nature into the story

There are touchstones for these playbooks listed which is good, although a numbe rare from anime I’ve got no knowledge of, which feels fitting for both Samjoko and for me.

It was an intimidatingly large book at nearly 400 pages back when I was reading <200 page PbtA games like The Warren and Night Witches, which was the main thing putting me off running it. There are a ton of cyberpunk games out there now and I hate to say, most of them feel like a bit of an easier sell than this. I won’t turn down a game of The Veil and with some work I’d be up for running it, but if I just want a ‘cyberpunk’ game, I’m probably going for Hack the Planet, Hard Wired Island or CBR+PNK.

Threadbare RPG: A Stitchpunk Tabletop Role-Playing Game

By Stephanie Bryant

Read before? No

Played? Yes

A rare RPG I own and have played but never read.

In Threadbare, you are all toys in a post apocalyptic setting where all the humans are gone. You’ll be either a charming soft toy, a hard plastic toy with accessories or a sock. The latter feels like a bit of a stretch, but they all have a number of different things you can do to customise them. Yes, even the socks.

The game itself has different modes from charming Toy Story hijinks to Wall-E ruin or straight up Fury Road with toys. Your character will lose pieces and customise themselves as they go on.

I realised I’d only read preview rules of the game and hadn’t seen the finished package. For something with a simple concept, it goes further into it than I thought.

A friend of mine, Rhys, ran a festive session of this back when I hosted an indie RPG night at the Dice Saloon. I played a group of little army men.

A Grandiose Disaster – A Live Action Roleplaying Game

By NDP Design & Mike Young

Read before? Yes

Played? No

This isn’t the only LARP I’ve backed, or the only one in this selection. This is a ‘parlour LARP’, the kind of thing you can play in a short amount of time in a space like a living room, ideally in this case with a bunch of chairs to use as props.

A Grandiose Disaster is a system for running disaster movie stories, with one example scenario set in a hotel in a volcano that’s totally safe. There’s a selection of roles and scenes play out from a deck of cards. Characters have symbols on their sheet which will go off at certain times, causing a kid to panic, a scientist to die and so on. This is all playable in about 90 minutes, and looks like it’ll be a fun time. I’ve not run it, mainly as I’ve not been certain of how to organise it yet, but I reckon it’ll be fun.

Meridian: A Story Game of Journeys Wondrous and Fantastical

By Christian Griffen

Read before? No

Played? No

In retrospect I should have backed this to a physical level. It’s an RPG based on things like Labyrinth, His Dark Materials and such, but it uses a TON of cards. The files from the Kickstarter are all individual sheets with cards on in different shapes and sizes, which would make them an incredible faff to print out and sleeve, so I’ve not bothered with this yet. It does look pretty, though.

Similar to Lovecraftesque you have one person playing the main character, one as the Guide and the rest as ‘Touches’. You’ll travel through locations with the Journeyer meeting companions and working their way through to a final choice based on the set of locations and the story you’re going through.

It all looks nice, but I think if I want this kind of story, I’ll probably go with Girl Underground.

What Ho, World! – A Roleplaying Game of Farce and Elegance

By Mina McJanda

Read before? Yes

Played? Yes

A short card-based farce set in the early 1900’s, with a lot of foppery. Each player picks a character and ability, they have goals and play cards to see how things go.

The moves each have triggers to activate, providing one thing to happen and then extra effects you can use your facedown move cards to activate. You each have goals which you can succeed at and gain wild tokens to help you across the winning line, or you can ditch them and draw another if you mess it up.

The rules are a simple sheet and there are a number of decks. Unlike Meridian, I backed this to a physical level with not just this but the standalone expansion, “Wizards Aren’t Gentlemen” about magicians.

The game itself felt like a lighter, fluffier game than Fiasco, but just as chaotic. Our failed attempts to host a nativity in the village church ended up with all but one character naked. I forget the other particulars about the event, but heartily recommend the game.

Rockalypse: The Fate Core RPG of Musical Conflict

By Eric Simon

Read before? No

Played? No

I like Fate, even if it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I had my fill of incredible settings and adventures from the Fate Core Kickstarter alone, but when I saw the theme of this one, I had to check it out. The world ended, but this system prioritises music and the creation of it as your way of interacting with the world. I love that about these kinds of expansions.

There aren’t many changes, but there are a few which help encourage the themes of the game. As an example are the new skills:

• Harmony – Adding layers to musical performances, disrupting other bands
• Melody – Providing beauty & power in music, an attack skill in this world instead of fighting or shooting
• Rhyme – Inspiring people, an attacking skill (with words)
• Rhythm – The backbone of music and a potential defence skill

There are also a few different uses for existing skills in order to help them be relevant for both the apocalypse and music.

I’ve yet to run this, or so many Fate worlds. I’ll offer it up like the others and see what players like the sound of.

Inheritance

By Burning Wheel & Luke Crane

Read before? No

Played? No

Another LARP, this one concerns two families brought together after the death of a patriarch in Jutland. There’s the matter of the inheritance and where it lies, as well as what to do when an exiled family member returns seeking his cut. This one’s tricky to describe as there are a lot of spoilers and it looks like it’ll need a lot more prep than A Grandiose Disaster, along with an incredibly specific number of players (nine plus a facilitator).

The cast are:

• Thorvaldsen – A retired Viking
• Fulla – Powerful matriarch
• Daxo – Back after being exiled
• Ring – Youngest son, a dreamer
• Tyr – A one-armed ex-berserk
• Gefjon – Wild priestess
• Ran – Bereaved daughter
• Ansgar – A Christian priest & accountant
• Aurvandil – Daxo’s boon companion

Each character has a sheet providing the simple overview of the rules and their opinions on each other. There are some basic resolution systems, but this is more about picking sides in a family dispute than being quantifiably better at bending bars or lifting gates. Handily, they even have illustrations of how to stand and intervene during the disputes, which for a LARP type thing is a good shout.

I like the idea of this story, I think it’s possibly going to be a little fiddly to organise.

MASHED: A Korean War MASH RPG

By Brabblemark Press & Mark Plemmons

Read before? No

Played? No

I love playing clerics, healers and support characters in general. This here’s a Powered by the Apocalypse game about playing a MASH unit in the Korean War. It’s not MASH the TV show, but it’s not not that, either. You have to deal with the challenges of daily life and keeping sane during it all.

I don’t know of Mark Plemmons’ background, but the book feels like a ton of research was done with a large bibliography provided. Fortunately, it also reads nicely, without getting too dry. 

You’re not all doctors and nurses, but there are a bunch of different playbooks:

• The Angel
• The Corpsman 
• The Cowboy 
• The Cutter 
• The Doc 
• The Grunt
• The Padre

You also take on a role, to mix things up from the job you’ve got in the unit, providing a move and some HX (history) modifiers:

• The Bully
• The Casanova
• The Clown
• The Gray
• The Misanthrope
• The Operator
• The Sky Pilot
• The Stickler

It doesn’t quite reach Night Witches as far as war games for me, but there are some points of comparison and some interesting ideas here. 

The Frost Papers: Ten Games to Play in the Dark

By Arcana Games

Read before? No

Played? No

I was tickled by the idea of games you play in the dark and yes, this is another LARP-ish game. It’s presented in the form of letters, each with ominous rituals to perform.

The games are all highly ritualised, asking things like to sit facing a wall while encircled by others, stopping clocks and so on.

• The Hallway Game has you enter a strange place from your seat
• The Walking Game allows you to travel in your dreams
• The Calling Game has you call a demon
• The Black and White Game is a game of necromancy where you speak to the dead and ask them questions
• The Doll Game involved burying a doll in a grave in order for a spirit to inhabit it and is not recommended
• The Jack’s Game involves mutilating a deck of cards
• The Lantern Game is a warding game which needs twigs
• The Talking Game is used to speak to spirits or people trapped in The Fog Between, using a planchette and a board
• The King’s Game has someone act as the King while questioned by The Crone and the Fool, looking for information about things to come
• The Hiding Game One of you is the Traveler and everyone else is a Guide who enters and hides, to be spotted through a mirror as you look for The Shadow Man.

I’m not sure if I can get this to the table (or the dark room), but it might make for a fantastic prop and ritual for The Between.

Continued in Part Two…