Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: The Software of Page 56
What have we here?
TTRPG Design Lenses
Starting us off is a tool for creating and playtesting your own TTRPGs. Originally created to assist hexavexagon in their own creations, these design lenses were adapted so that anyone could use them.
What’s a design lens? They are prompts/cards/documents that help focus a designer on important topics to the genre or medium that they are working in. There’s a lot of theory involved. In this case there is tons of information here for anyone that may be curious about creating their own TTRPG or wanting to know what goes in to one.
GODEATER
Ever wanted to kill God? It isn’t a foreign concept to TTRPGs, and GODEATER is no exception. Built by Public Universal Adversary Games, this is a TTRPG built on the back of Dungeon’s and Dragons with the explicit purpose of flipping the narrative of the game’s divinity. Here players are not begotten to the gods, but explicitly against them which builds the fundamentals for how the game is played.
The mechanics were built utilizing pieces of the OSR while having a bigger focus on characters and the choices that they make. There are also some alterations to magic if you are interested in the lore of the world, which can alter your perspective.
It’s an interesting idea to completely alter an already existing system, so give it a shot if you want to kill the D&D gods.
No Rest For The Wicked
Let’s go the opposite direction a bit here. No Rest For The Wicked is a microRPG about kicking back and relaxing as the villains of a story. You and the rest of the players are having a lovely day off running errands, finishing some chores, and generally trying to fly under the radar. After all, if you don’t, the supers will show up; what will happen to your groceries if you get caught?
It’s a small game using improv and imagination, and it’s fun to be the bad guys sometimes — even if you aren’t really being the bad guys.
Simply The Best
Simply The Best is an anthology of interviews with video game designers and composers by Mat Bradly-Tschirgi and published by Moon Books. It takes a look at various individuals that have helped to shape games throughout the years, learning about the older systems and their quirks while comparing how things were made to how they are made now.
Unlike similar books of this nature, these interviews focus on the individuals and their fond memories in gaming, or their experiences that have shaped them to who they are today. If you want some strange information that you could never get anywhere else, this might be the book to read.
When the Messages Began
Let’s head back to the realm of RPGs with When the Messages Began by Laws of Names Media. Centred in a world in which light has been nonexistent for 50 years, it is a writing game for two players where one is a ‘Receiver’ and one is a ‘Sender’. The Receiver is the one living in this pitch-black world with only a computer to communicate, while the Sender is a string of words appearing on the computer screen.
What this creates is a strange letter-writing scenario where both parties are teaching each other about the world they live in, yet the Sender is not necessarily ‘in’ a world. There is no win condition, only a writing game — and sometimes that’s all you need.
Lemon Grove
Lemon Grove is a supplement for Troika by salsberyr, with a fixation on citrus and westerns. There are 36 backgrounds to invest yourself in to, giving a vague description of the world that these backgrounds reside in with the Citrus Lords. There are also some spells to give even more flavour, and there are enough hooks within the backgrounds to make things spicy.
I don’t play a lot of Troika, so give this a chance if you do and really want to shake up your characters.
Rod, Reel, & Fist
FISHING RPG. FISHING RPG. A TTRPG ABOUT FISHING.
Sorry about that. Let’s start over.
Rod, Reel, & Fist is a TTRPG by kumada1 in which players are all heroic fishers attempting to save their village with their catches. It balances out its fishing with the need to ward off hostile animals with a combat system with a heavy emphasis on resource management.
There are six scenarios that you can use, including a rogue-like mode, but it can also be spliced to be implemented in to other campaigns and one-shots. It aims to be versatile but deep, just like the fishing you’ll be doing.
It’s just absurd enough to work, and I love it. This might be my favourite addition to the bundle in a long time.
The Name of God
Alright let’s get back to more relaxed, normal- hold on, is this a card game?
The Name of God is a narrative card game by UnPlayableGamesRPG. Inspired by Neil Gaiman’s works and the song ‘Narayan’ by The Prodigy, this is a dark game about a trip through a terrifying metropolitan hole.
Each of the 24 cards represents a ‘Fetish’, or character archetype. These cards are used in the ‘rituals’ that occur thanks to the GM role, which absorbs players who ‘die’ as the game goes on. It’s hard to describe properly, as it requires players to understand GMing and the balance of playing — there are flavours of Unknown Armies here that might be a good reference point.
There’s a comment on the itch.io page that does a fantastic job of going indepth about the mechanics, I’d recommend checking it out as well if you are interested. Ultimately, it’s a terrifying game about death and attrition, and that might be what you want.
mMcFabs’s Texture to SkyBox Converter
Originally I thought this was a video game, but in reality this is a massive software piece to assist in converting ‘flat horizontal tiled textures into convincing skyboxes’. In simpler terms, it allows for people to create skyboxes — those things that players see in games that cover the tops of the screen — with only a texture.
Normally skyboxes are a completely separate entity, requiring a unique creation or procedural generation. This tool helps to create the entire thing from a texture you may already have, and it works quite well for panarama usage as well. It might not work as cleanly as creating one yourself, but if you are in a pinch this might be a good tool.
Artifacts of the Tarot
Another card game, Artifacts of the Tarot was created during the 48 hour mega RPG game jam by Nurghelm. Using a tarot deck, you and friends will become items of incredible power to pursue the goals of your desire, traveling the world through different hosts and heroes in order to win.
The tarot cards will determine how the events transpire, but it is up to the players (and the GM) to direct themselves to their own victory. Best of luck, you sword of destruction.
Masak Ayam
Masak Ayam is a TTRPG about the greatest chicken whoever lived. No, seriously. Created by Bram for Chicken Jam 2020, this short game revolves around players assembling chickens that are fighting to escape the kitchen they have been sentenced to. They will fight beak and claw to escape in a dramatic fashion, especially since the concept of ‘kitchen’ is loose allowing for it to mean something much more grandiose.
Will you escape, or will your powers consume you? Perhaps someone else will consume you? Who knows, you are a chicken with super powers; not much else is necessary.
Super Spooky Supernatural Cruise Ship Party
Finally on our list is this hack of Grant Howitt’s Honey Heist by drowsy_tree in which players are all supernatural creatures. While a relatively simple concept, the problem is that you and the rest of your players are on a month-long cruise along with the ‘Supernatural hunter’s Foundation’.
It’s a game about surviving the odds while everyone wants to kill you, while also ensuring that you can still get a good tan and enjoy this ‘vacation’.
