Doodling while my daughter was in ballet.
I’m still neck deep in RPG design. I’ve been fairly obsessed with it since last Summer, aside from a brief dive into comics. I don’t even know which pieces of art and comics I’ve shared online in the last 6 months. I guess I’ve been kind of a cave dweller recently.
Anyway, the game’s working title is “Rabbits & Rangers” and it’s a fantasy RPG about funny animals. I think the system is nice and simple with a bit of character and flair. My playtesting so far has been very limited but I hope to do some more live playtesting in the coming months. I’m not sure about when I’ll actually publish this. Its a larger project than I’m used to working on. But its a real labor of love and I’m proud of the work so far.
Still working on RPG(s). The main project,Rabbits & Rangers, is coming along pretty well. The mechanics seem to be solid, though I need more playtesting in a group to see how they work in a dynamic setting.
The dice worry me a little. I’m using modified d6s with 3 sides as + and 3 sides as -. I suggest in the game that you buy some wooden craft cubes (like $2 a bag) and use markers to make the dice. Personally I love the idea and I’ve done this myself for years. But I’m worried that gamers will find it too much trouble. I don’t know. The alternate is to just use normal d6s and treat 1-3 as the negative and 4-6 as the positive. I mean, it works the same it just isn’t as fun.
Another struggle has been whether or not to use Classes. It makes sense to use them, especially since the name of a popular fantasy Class is in the title. But I’ve written it without Classes and it works just fine. In fact, without Classes there is more freedom to create whatever you like.
The Animal list is pretty extensive. I have something like 47 Animals described. I won’t do more, not now, but I might have to trim it back a little. Though I’d hate to lose the Chicken…I need a Chainmail Chick.
The other idea that’s been on my brain is something calledMask Ragers. I’m not sure where it’s going. It’s based on doodles I’ve done over the years of little cartoony guys and girls who look like they’re wearing masks or hoods and junk. I kinda think this will be a frenetic combat game of some kind. I like the idea of doodling a bazillion of these little characters and giving them just 2 or 3 stats + 2 or 3 powers. Everything would fit on a card with the image and stats on the front and the powers and junk on the back.
The idea floating in my head is that you’d have a Mask level and a Rage level. Your Mask is kinda like your mainline rating. High Mask = badass. When you are attacked, your enemies would need to roll your Mask or higher to hit you at all. Rage would be a pool of potential. You’d gamble Rage. So, for example, you might engage in a battle with Tyranno Rex who has a Mask of 18. You roll 1d20. So you might use 10 Rage, rolling 1d20+10 in order to hit the 18 mark. But Rage would be a pool, so as you battle it dwindles. It only resets or “heals” when you defeat your enemy or under some other special conditions. So you’d have to budget your Rage appropriately.
I don’t know. It’s just an idea. Still noodling it.
Recently my good friend ran a session of RPG Kids at my house with his daughter, my son, and myself as the party. What a blast! More in the future for sure.
Not that I ever really forgot, but it reminded me how much I absolutely love the whole RPG dungeon adventure genre. I guess it is because of the mix of comics, Frazetta, Tolkien, and TSR games like red box D&D and purple box Star Frontiers that I consider this to be MY genre.
This was a fun imitation of the old AD&D module covers. Had a really good time doing this.
