Happy Pride! June is a month to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community. Especially in the times we live in, when kindness, respect, and inclusion seem to be under constant attack, we all must come together and fight back. Kindness is punk, and silence is capitulation!
I want to do my part as an ally because too many of my friends, loved ones, and fellow gamers are members of the LGBTQ+ community. While we all dream of a day when who you are and who you love are non-issues and universally respected, we are not quite there yet. Love is love!
To celebrate, I’m sharing a list of ten perfect games to bring to the table this month. You can check out the full CBR article here:
https://www.cbr.com/lgbtq-ttrpgs-to-play-with-friends-pride-month
And on a more personal note, I want to recommend Closet, a game by Paco García of GMS Magazine. I had the chance to back his crowdfunding campaign, and honestly, I absolutely love it. I think it’s an excellent tool to help us step into other people’s shoes and empathize a lot more with the struggles the LGBTQ+ community faces daily. You can find it on DriveThruRPG here:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/528214/closet
When someone attacks a party member, we all roll initiative!
A mage sits in a cemetery, sipping tea while his diggers excavate Lady Veshra’s grave. He must speak only in rhyme lest his lungs collapse. His murdered wife possesses the living to assist his ritual. The cemetery fights back with sentinel crows and grief wraiths. Veshra’s descendant wants the Soulstone inside the coffin… her last asset. Tonight he joins his true love in life or in death.
These twelve pages describe the idea for an adventure rather than adventure.
I don’t even know what’s real anymore. I don’t know how I got here. Somehow this made it on to my list. I THINK that means someone had to specifically ask me to review it. I know itch is worse than DriveThru and so I don’t go clam digging there. Maybe while I was drugged up?
It’s just twelve pages outlining the concept of an idea. A dumb ass mage who has to sip tea is digging up a grave to get some magic thing. There are undead in the cemetery, and a ghost-thing, and some other chick shows up with mercs who wants the same thing the mage is digging for. That’s the outline. And it takes twelve pages to do that.
Look, I’m not saying all of the ideas here are bad. One of the hooks has you showing up, as relatives, to rob the grave. “You arrived early to claim it before your “dear cousin” and her hired thugs “ That’s good writing and a decent hook. Or the local official sending you to deal with some chick who he thinks is batshit crazy who insists her ancestors grave is being robbed. As “hired hands” goes at least its got some life.
And, thus, some of the framings in this are fine, or more than fine. But it never does anything with them. It’s just a collection of motivations and ideas. Heavy on art and whitespace. I can’t emphasize this enough: this is not an adventure. It is a collection of ideas that one could build an adventure from.
Whoever asked me to review this must have been trolling. I see that the system, Yarn & Bone, is variously describe as world-first, conversation heavy and solo. Who knows. But it also says its compatible with all RPG systems. In the sense that this is just a collection of ideas, yes, it is certainly compatible, just as the OED is as a roleplaying adventure.
Gentle reader, why have you not shit in a box and charged $5 for it?
It’s Name Your Price at itch, with a suggested price of $5.
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Like last Sunday’s post, today’s feature focuses on someone I met through the Puerto Rico Role Players community. Angel and I have crossed paths in a couple of different fields; since we both work in the education sector, albeit in very different roles, we’ve always had plenty of ground to cover.
He is a longtime gamer who, much like my own compulsive homebrewing habits, absolutely loves tinkering with systems and creating his own rulesets. Let me share my interview with him so you can get to know him and his work a little better.
Introduce yourself! Who are you and what do you create?
I’m Angel Miranda, better known as Enyol. I’m a full-time teacher and part-time TTRPG designer.
How would you describe your creative endeavor?
I design all sorts of things for different TTRPGs. I’ve designed 4 different game systems and published one. I’ve designed monsters, classes, and rules for Pathfinder 1e and D&D 5e; most of these have been self-published.
How did you discover TTRPGs?
I discovered TTRPGs in college, when I saw a group of people playing at a table. I was immediately interested in it. I’ve been playing and running games since 2006.
Do you actively play TTRPG? What are you playing?
I’m actively playing at the moment. I’m running a Paradigm Odyssey campaign (a system of my design and my baby), and I’m a player in a Daggerheart campaign and in a D&D 5e Campaign.
What do you want to play next?
Next, I’d like to keep playing and polishing my Paradigm Odyssey system with friends and strangers, and I’d love to test out Fabula Ultima and Vagabond.
What projects are available, and what are you working on next?
I’m currently working on a Spanish-language TTRPG YouTube channel for my local audience, and I’m always looking to take Paradigm Odyssey to different stores across the island.
Where can people get your project?
People can find me on YouTube at: Roleplayers de Boriken and on Instagram at @Paradigm.Odyssey.
Any closing thoughts? Final commentary: Remember rule #1, always have fun
Thank you, Angel, for sharing your time and your creations with us. You can check Angel’s DriveThruRPG page here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/31128/enyol
The Daleks have been on their quest to become the masters of the universe for over 60 years. This month’s Doctor Who Magazine looks back to their origins with interviews with those that helped bring them to life in the 1960s.
It’s also the 30th anniversary of the TV movie starring Paul McGann. There’s a preview of the new 4K remaster, out this month, and an interview with the man behind its incredible look.
Dalekmania this issue!
Three decades of the Eighth Doctor
Also this issue:
Doctor Who Magazine 630 (c) Panini Doctor Who Magazine 630
DWM Issue 630 is on sale Thursday the 28th of May from the online Panini store, TG Jones and other retailers priced £8.99 (UK). Also available as a digital edition from Pocketmags for £7.99. You can also save with a subscription, as well as receiving exclusive, text-free covers.
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Going on 10 years ago I got inspired by various sword and sorcery things to create a game called Dead Wizards. It's set in a sandy desert city. Very much a "sand and sorcery" idea inspired by mummy movies as well as Lankhmar and Conan and a bit of Al-Qadim.
My first pass at it was a hack of Swords & Wizardry where I think the main difference was that spells were cast by burning hit points. I ran that a couple of times.
A bit later I revised it and ran it again, briefly. Then I changed the whole system to be based on the image above, using the old to-hit matrix as the core mechanic of the game. Partly, this was a grognard response to anti-THAC0 folks. Just a bit of tongue in cheekiness.
I sometimes went hard to defend descending AC...
The idea shifted in 2020 and became a "let me see if I can make this a game based on those animalistic goons from the movie Heavy Metal." So I did. And it was called GOZR. I say all this because I've been working on Dead Wizards again after a lot of years in limbo. I want back to the last and fullest draft of the game, which was pretty good, actually. The rules in that version are essentially GOZR. I've abandoned the THAC0 matrix, mostly. But there is a small "to hit" matrix on the character sheet. Much simplified, it has 4 categories of difficulty (Basic, Arduous, Grueling, and Epic) with target numbers for each of them for only 2 basic skill areas (Cunning and Prowess). I think this is a really nice amalgam of GOZR's simple target number system and the old to-hit matrices. It's easy on the eyes and intuitive. You're trying to do a daring leap to grab a sacred relic off the giant demon's head? Sounds like an Arduous task, at least. You roll 1d20 vs. your Arduous Prowess target. Once set, the targets never change. But you can pick up various benefits here and there and acquire situational boosts. The idea here is to keep it player-facing and as math-less as possible. Target is 9, you need to roll a 9. You have an advantage? +1 to the roll. Oh, the demon takes notice and now is actively protecting the sacred relic from your grasp? It's now a Grueling task. So those are just some thoughts about the game in development. Clever observers will note that I still haven't produced that space fantasy game, ZSF. Hell's bells, West... you already playtested it, you already have Troika! based books about the same setting. What's the hold up? Yeah, I'll get to it. Inspiration is fickle, you know.