Flying Circus

Flying Circus

Flying Circus is a game that looks extremely normal on the surface.

Okay, sure, there are biplanes and dragons. But the overall cover aesthetic evokes red box D&D, and there's barely a hint of the wild design choices lurking beneath.

Flying Circus is also a pbta game. This means Powered By The Apocalypse---broadly, a group of ttrpgs that are more narrative-y and story-game-y and collaborative in play.

So the last thing you'd expect here would be pages and pages of highly detailed biplane aviation physics and moves that model the affect of G-strain on the pilot and fuel burning at different rates at different altitudes.

Right?

Flying Circus is a game about running a biplane company in a post-WWI Hayao Miyazaki aesthetic german countryside. And like a Miyazaki movie, it's not non-violent. There's conflict and dragons and and ancient technology and horrifying things beyond comprehension---but there's also rolling hills and swaying grain fields and the overbearing beauty of a world un-industrialized.

Every player plays a pilot, builds their own plane (out of a *lot* of different component parts,) manages their stress levels between sorties, and engages in highly technical, heavily researched biplane combat where altitude is a currency and there's a million ways your plane can stall out, crash, and explode.

To say that Flying Circus is audacious is underselling it.

This is a high crunch game wearing the shell of a zero crunch game like an octopus in a coconut.

But it's tightly built, *very* comprehensive in what it lets you do while flying a plane, and tricky to learn but fun to try and master.

I am not smart enough for it, but I think it might be one of my favorite games I've read this year.

drivethrurpg.com

Flying Circus - Core Rulebook - Newstand Press | Anime-Themed Games | Flying Circus | DriveThruRPG.com

Flying Circus - Core Rulebook - Flying Circus is an in-depth, highly detailed Powered by the Apocalypse-derived roleplaying game of aviation

so embarrassing when i forget im checking someone's blog and i start scrolling through and liking and reblogging shit as if it's just my dash. it feels like wandering into someone else's apartment and not noticing and making myself lunch

Okay now I'm curious- I try to recommend fewer shows that I think are pretty well known these days, but I wonder if most of them are as well known as I think. Here's my list and my question, remember it's heard of not even necessarily listened to:

The Magnus Archives, The White Vault, Wooden Overcoats, The Bright Sessions, Welcome to Nightvale, The Black Tapes, Wolf 359, Video Palace, I Am In Eskew, Archive 81, Two Princes, Midnight Burger, Brimstone Valley Mall, Woe.Begone, Malevolent, Ars Paradoxica, Eos 10, King Falls AM, The Adventure Zone

Ghost Fire Knight by Dominik Mayer

Today: planned another Monster of the Week session for @merelyroleplayers

Tomorrow: planning a two-shot of Heart: The City Beneath for Actual Play UK

Wednesday: GMing my first session of Lancer (not for public consumption)

You give me a week off dayjob work and I fill it wall to wall with RPGs 😇

some of my favourite sign fails <3