Over the last couple of months we have been trying out new systems to tell stories and really hone our abilities as both GMs and Players. Here is a quick list of the systems we have tried or ones that we plan on trying in the near future. Be sure to follow the links to check them out.
As a note, we bought all of the materials listed below and none of this is sponsored by any of the groups in this article.
Kids on Bikes - Hunters Entertainment
Author: Jonathan Gilmour & Doug Levandowski
Publisher: Renegade Game Studios
Price: $25 Softcover, $35 Hardcover, $9.99 on DMsguild.com (as of 6/18/2020)
Bard rating: 5/5 - “Simple and easy to dive into. If you have ever wanted to play a Stranger Things, The Goonies, or E.T. kind of campaign then this is worth the money!”
Kids on Bikes is a collaborative storytelling role-playing game about small towns and big adventures!
The 80-page rulebook helps the entire group jointly create characters, the setting, parts of the plot, and rules on how to co-manage a super-powered player character. From the moment you open the book you can tell that authors Jonathan Gilmour & Doug Levandowski were trying to hone in on the group storytelling side of RPGs and we are fully here for it.
The system is very rules-lite and most rolls are to keep the story moving and not focus too much on bonuses and modifiers. You have six simple stats, some you are good at and others you are not. There is no health track, players will take damage based on the need in the plot. AND if you fail a roll it isn’t the end of the world — you gain an Adversity Token that you can use to boost future rolls or to gain a momentary perk.
Overall, the system took our playgroup less than an hour to figure out and start rolling. I spent 30 minutes before the session writing down events and popular media from the period, 1976, and making sure I understood the rules myself. We finished off on a cliff hanger ending at about the 4h:30m mark, leaving it open to future adventures or closing the door on the questions at hand.
Our playgroup dove into the sleepy town of Gulliver’s Cove. A small coastal town propped up by a local military base. Before long our brother-sister duo and their babysitter were crawling through the ventilation system of a not-so-secret research facility. The siblings were on a mission to figure out who was behind their father’s disappearance and the babysitter was trying to prove that she wasn’t wearing a tinfoil hat when it came to the towns overbearing feral cat population.
There were men in dark clothes. Factories with classic green ooze in large cylinders and cats being controlled by psychic children.
TL:DR - Overall we all felt satisfied with the end result. We were able to squeeze a 0-session in and learn about the setting while building characters and the system was easy enough to just dive in.
Swordsfall
Creator: Brandon Dixon
Price: Preorder now!
Bard rating: “We can not wait to get our copy of this. I have seen Swordsfall’s work circulating for a while now and with everything going on in the USA it is a good project to follow and help support Black content creators.” - Devin
I do want to start this one out with a bit of a disclaimer. The Core Rulebook is technically not out for pre-order as of 6/19/2020, but it will be going to Kickstarter after the Welcome to Tikor Setting book is released later this fall.
Brandon Dixon launched the Swordsfall Kickstarter back in March of 2020, and in less than an hour, they had raised 600% of their initial goal. At a time when representation matters and thousands march for equality, this project brings both the world of Tikor and a fresh set of eyes and hands to the tabletop space as a whole. Something that is desperately needed right now.
Swordsfall is an Afropunk setting that showcases a world full of lore where gods, spirits, and man all exist side by side. This creates a rich fabric of storytelling that is bound to unfold in countless unforeseeable ways.
With the limited amount of information on the Corebook circulating, we turned to their latest release, The Summit of Kings, to start piecing together what this system will look like in the future.
The Summit of Kings - Battle for the Supreme Jalen is a 2-4 player one-shot. We picked up our copy over on Drivethrurpg for 4.99 as of 6/19/2020, regularly $9.99.
Jalen is described as a profession on Tikor and a powerful one at that. They are the “Voice of the People” as their World Anvil details. The Power of Word is used by the Jalen to support people in need and comes to life where the need is strong.
The Summit of Kings - Battle for the Supreme Jalen is a love letter to Rap, and the adventure represents some big names in the real-life genre in the book. The 27-page book gives everyone involved all of the tools to try out freestyle rapping and every bit of guidance needed to enjoy themselves.
The rest of the one-shot is a combination of how to use the pools of dice that players roll for outcomes, how to handle Combat Flow (Rap battles), and more glimpses of the incredible work of T’Umo Mere, Sabina Lewis, Tanni Brown, and Enmanuel Martinez.
Seriously, the art work is amazing.
I leave you with this quote from The Summit of King’s Letter from the Creator:
”The creation of Jalens as a whole in Swordsfall is my way of encapsulating that bit of [rap] history into the gaming lexicon. Putting the idea of rap not as destructive and violent, but as for the people, and freeing. That it creates hope, and joy for the people around them. And that when large groups of dark-skinned people gather together its not a threat. Sometimes it’s just because we want to enjoy the sun, fun, music, good food and good company. That’s what The Summit of Kings is. Showing hip-hip, rap and the culture around it in a fictional world that respects it from the ground up.”
Blades in the Dark
Designer: John Harper
Publisher: Evil Hat Productions
Price: $30 Softcover, $20.00 on Drivethrurpg.com (as of 6/18/2020)
Bard rating: This one was actually recommended to us by a friend and we are excited to run it in the near future!
I want to start this section off with a note, we will be diving into this system in the future, the 336-page book will take some time to get into, and there is a lot of ground to cover. We wanted to include it because it looks like a fascinating system that many might not know is out there!
In Blades in the Dark, you take on the persona of a bad guy in a pre-Victorian era Doskvol and commit a series of “Scores,” campaigns based around crimes. If you have ever played video games like Thief, Dishonored, or We Happy Few, then you will feel at home here.
The system sticks to a success based dice roll system, requiring a 6 on the dice for a complete success. 4s and 5s on the dice could equal success but with drawbacks. Maybe a player breaks their wrist, a tire goes flat during a chase, or a player is recognized by a guard.
One of the key components of the system is that there is little planning when it comes to these Scores. Players can jump right into the thick of the heist and as the whole thing unfolds they can use Flashbacks to narrate parts of the Score. So, during the Score, the crew comes to a gate where they need a specific key to access the area. Well, the group can move into a flashback and narrate how they got the key after getting a guard drunk and robbing him of his. After rolling a success or failure, the show jumps back to the present. Players can make these flashbacks as extravagant as they want and the only real cost is a series of “Stress Points” in which the GM hands out based on the outcomes. If your character reaches 10 Stress they abandon the heist and if this happens four times the character is retired.
There are other tools in the books that empower the players to make decisions as events arise, creating a more reactive style of creativity rather than a preparatory one. This allows more creatively inclined players to have moments to shine rather than spend days buried in splat books trying to remember lists of spells and bonuses.
TL: DR - Blades in the Dark has made waves in the space with its player engagement model allowing players to react to situations and be able to push the story along rather than have to spend days prepping and planning the minutia of a campaign. I am very excited to get the group on board and on the streets of Doskvol.
Hyper Light Drifter RPG
Author: Andreas Walters
Publisher: Metal Weave Games
Price: You can get the basic rules book for free on their site or pre-order the core Rulebook on their Backerit for $45.00.
Bard rating: We have been following Andreas and Metal Weave Games for some time now, they have an amazing set of wares on their site and this RPG is in good hands.
I have been following the Hyper Light Drifter RPG since it went live on Kickstarter a while back and the progress that Andreas has made is incredible. The RPG is based on the award-winning Hyper Light Drifter video game that was released in March of 2016 and keeps true to the source material down to how players interact in combat with a series of Dashes. With unique tactical combat, a lot of agency on the player’s part, and some built in rules to make the experience the best case scenario for everyone involved this one should be on your radar if not in your hands.
Recently they made the Basic Rules Book FREE to make it more accessible to the community. Check out the announcement here. Yes, FREE. If you don’t pick it up and at least check the system out you are doing yourself a disservice. Since it is free and you can read over their amazing rules set we won’t dive into the mechanics in this article but we will circle back around in the future for a full solo review!
HLD-RPG’s Basic Rules Book starts you off with the basics of tabletop gaming and adds in a lot of notes that some Junior or New GMs might not think to cover with their play groups: How to cover sensitive topics, a special system for approaching a participants comfort at the table, table manners, and how to establish rules as a group. In other words, the book helps the party form a social contract on how to play from the get go. This is a route that more RPG’s should take in my opinion. Teaching the next generation of DMs (and veteran ones if I am being honest) how to approach a 0-session and how to establish a healthy social contract at the table not only helps that table but helps to foster a strong community of mindful TTRPGers at large.
The book then takes both the player and Narrator (GM) on their respective journeys to build the world and their characters. The colorful 80 page document is continually updated as the team takes a community feedback route for development which allows multiple paths for followers of the project to give feedback during the creation process and then see their notes translated into the book as it goes.
TL:DR - This book does more than bring a notable video game to the tabletop, it brings a fresh take on resource management and gives GMs all the tools and guidance they need to create a wonderful experience at their tables.
