Powered By The Apocalypse - Tumblr Posts
anyone want to play MOTW or dnd?
I have a few ideas for campaigns but I don’t have anyone to play with
I’m fairly new to gming and honestly ttrpgs in general so if you decide that you want to play pls bear with me, other new/beginner players are welcome too! It would be either voice or text-based on discord (whatever players are comfortable with)
Lgbtq+ friendly, anyone can join with around 3-5 players! Pm me if you’re interested! :D
I say a lot of stuff on this blog about "play another game" and I really want people to understand what I mean about that. monopolies are bad. DnD has, through marketing and business decisions and luck and capital, dominated the entire hobby in a way that no other creative genre has ever seen before.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fivepointsgames/a-monsters-tail-a-monster-catching-tabletop-rpg
Hey you! Yes, you! Do you like TTRPGs? Monsters? TTRPGs where you catch monsters and have them fight with the power of friendship? If you said yes to any of these questions then A Monster's Tail might be the game for you!
A Monster's Tail is primarily inspired by the Pokemon franchise, but is also inspired by games such as Digimon, Dragon Quest Monsters, and Jade Cocoon.
This game comes with an entire region to explore with your friends and over 60 Genmon (the name for the monsters you will encounter) to battle, catch, and befriend! And potentially more if certain stretch goals are reached!
The classes/jobs of A Monster's Tail are called Journeys. Journeys do more than decide your stats and abilities as a trainer. They also decide your character's goals and aspirations!
Journey as The Champion to be the very best like no one ever was, to catch them is your test, to train them is your cause. A classic I'm sure you're all familiar with.
Journey as The Idol to show off the beauty, grace, and sheer adorableness of your Genmon! Become a shining star in the world of entertainment!
Journey as The Professor to research and uncover the mysterious secrets of Genmon! Become the nerd you were always meant to be!
If all this isn't enough to convince you, here's one last thing...
One of the Starter Genmon is a magic Pomeranian called Pomiraiden that can shoot lightning.
*mic drop*
...
*picks mic back up because I'm not done yet*
As of the time of this post, you have 17 days to back A Monster's Tail. Fund it while you still can!
*mic drop for real this time*
Hey NOT ONLY THIS but because the new Tourist Trap zine is out, the Cold Snap one has had a price cut!
Sherrydown Enquirer 3: Tourist Trap
What's that rattling through your letterbox? It's the long overdue third issue of the Sherrydown Enquirer!
Contains all you need to run our Monster of the Week mystery, Tourist Trap - plus bonus Vigil lore!
Get the Sherrydown Enquirer issue 3 - Tourist Trap now on @itchio. Each full price (or above) sale adds another community copy.
Want to try before you buy? Here's us playing through Tourist Trap on mic!
The story spans five acts and includes:
🚐 body horror food truck
🙋♀️ Jess volunteers as tribute
👋 dismemberment
This episode: tense, emotionally charged standoff
Also this episode: BIG SPLOOSH 💦
Vigil: Quarry, Act 2
In which the hounds of the Hunt are revealed; the Hunt keeps recruiting; and Brier makes a mess of Melodies.
Prefer your podcasts audio only? Follow us on your usual podcast app - search Merely Roleplayers or head to www.merelyroleplayers.com
COMPERE: Matt Boothman
STARRING:
Christopher Starkey as Cameron Jarvis, the Wronged
Helen Stratton as Melody, the Constructed
Strat as Brier, the Monstrous
Vikki as Renko, the Flake
ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael Sands
MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst
SOUND DESIGN BY: Helen Stratton
EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman
Get yourself on my mailing list before Friday for early access to my latest mystery for Monster of the Week!
Your chance to hunt the Bad Dog
^ That there is Act 1 of Vigil: Bad Dog, one of our Monster of the Week actual play series set in the quiet English market town of Sherrydown.
Bad Dog is a mystery about being made to feel like a trespasser in your own town. It mechanically incentivises the players to vandalise CCTV cameras and hostile architecture.
Monster of the Week players: does that sound like something you might enjoy playing? Or have you listened to Vigil: Bad Dog and thought "our group would have done that WAY differently"?
The official Bad Dog mystery for Monster of the Week comes out this month. All the locations, bystanders, minions and monster stats you need to play Bad Dog with your group. Plus lore: a tradition born from a devilish legend of Sherrydown's deep past, and an interview with Mayor Jackie Dambrook about how absolutely nobody should worry their little heads about the English Sorcery Guild, oh no no no.
Subscribers to the Foggy Outline newsletter get Bad Dog this Friday; it publishes to everyone else a week later.
So if you think your Monster of the Week group can survive ! Barghest and a tangled mess of council procurement issues, sign up for the newsletter now:
Did we just discover our setting's origin of the bogeyman...?
Ghouls (Vigil Backstage)
We create some more lore about ghouls, especially the specific one Cameron is bent on destroying.
Prefer your podcasts audio only? Follow us on your usual podcast app - search Merely Roleplayers or head to www.merelyroleplayers.com
COMPERE: Matt Boothman
STARRING:
Christopher Starkey as Cameron Jarvis, the Wronged
Helen Stratton as Melody, the Constructed
Strat as Brier, the Monstrous
Vikki as Renko, the Flake
ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael Sands
MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst
SOUND DESIGN BY: Helen Stratton
EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman
BRIER: I thought a problem shared was a problem halved.
PAUSE.
MELODY: You did not think that.
...is one of my favourite exchanges we've ever improvised.
Vigil: Quarry, Act 3
In which Brier plays both sides; the pull of blood works both ways; and things come to a head at Sherrydown Library.
Prefer your podcasts audio only? Follow us on your usual podcast app - search Merely Roleplayers or head to www.merelyroleplayers.com
COMPERE: Matt Boothman
STARRING:
Christopher Starkey as Cameron Jarvis, the Wronged
Helen Stratton as Melody, the Constructed
Strat as Brier, the Monstrous
Vikki as Renko, the Flake
ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael Sands
MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst
SOUND DESIGN BY: Helen Stratton
EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman
Featuring everything you never knew you wanted to know about
the origins of the podcast
that bit in Ariadne where everyone accused Alex of stealing four imaginary mugs of Bovril from an NPC
Replay: Ariadne (Backstage)
Let’s go back to where this all started - with the slow-burn spookiness of Ariadne.
Prefer your podcasts audio only? Follow us on your usual podcast app - search Merely Roleplayers or head to www.merelyroleplayers.com
COMPERE: Josh Yard
WITH: Matt Boothman
MUSIC BY: Matt Boothman
EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Josh Yard and Matt Boothman
Finale finale finale!
Not that it's over...
Vigil: Quarry, Act 4
In which the Hunt is at bay; a hound bites its master; and a mentor has nothing more to teach.
Prefer your podcasts audio only? Follow us on your usual podcast app - search Merely Roleplayers or head to www.merelyroleplayers.com
COMPERE: Matt Boothman
STARRING:
Christopher Starkey as Cameron Jarvis, the Wronged
Helen Stratton as Melody, the Constructed
Strat as Brier, the Monstrous
Vikki as Renko, the Flake
ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael Sands
MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst
SOUND DESIGN BY: Helen Stratton
EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman
If you're the type who likes to watch for hints, listen out for the bits of this episode about other realms - they will pay off in the next Vigil production (which I'm editing right now!)
Disbanding (Vigil Backstage)
We look back at Vigil: Quarry. Did we truly stop the danger or just put it off until later?
Prefer your podcasts audio only? Follow us on your usual podcast app - search Merely Roleplayers or head to www.merelyroleplayers.com
COMPERE: Matt Boothman
STARRING:
Christopher Starkey as Cameron Jarvis, the Wronged
Helen Stratton as Melody, the Constructed
Strat as Brier, the Monstrous
Vikki as Renko, the Flake
ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael Sands
MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst
SOUND DESIGN BY: Helen Stratton
EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman
What started as a joke during the Read The Fucking Manual podcast episode about Patchwork World is now an actual thing I'm doing I guess!
So I'm writing a PbtA move a day, every day, for 365 days in 2023! Or at least, that's the plan. Why take on such a challenge of hubris? (Especially while I'm already doing #Dungeon23 this year, hah!)
Rae's PbtA23 or An Act Of Hubris
PbtA is Cool. Powered by the Apocalypse, first created by Meguey and Vincent Baker, is one of my favorite TTRPG frameworks. There are many components of PbtA, but one of the most famous pieces are the moves. I see them as narrative moments that are triggered through the fiction players create. I've been designing in the PbtA space a lot (I think my biggest work has gotta be Apocalypse Keys) but I feel like there's still a lot I can learn!
Moves outside of an ecosystem is my design poetry. At least, that's my initial approach. Normally I have to think about how different moves interact with several other components in a game. Not so with PbtA23! I can make up mechanics and not worry about what that means. Focusing on a single move means I don't have to worry about any of the usual parameters, so it's an excuse to get experimental, weird, or indulgent!
Design is a skill that sharpens with consistent practice. I once joined itchio ttrpg game jams every month, putting together small games on the regular. It wasn't sustainable, though I pulled it off for about a year or so? But it really helped me grow my craft and sharpen my design instincts in a fun way. I can't do game jams anymore because of health reasons but maybe this can be a way to keep honing my skills in a relaxed way!
This is going to be fun. Due to bad brain stuff I have a perfectionist streak that causes me a lot of problems. Between Dungeon23 and PbtA23, I hope to focus on the joyous act of just creating without worrying about publishing standards or paying my bills through writing these moves. None of this is going to become "Product" or "Finished Game" by the end of the year, this is purely a fun daily task. The other stuff I'll be working on needs to be publishable and cover the cost of Being Alive, but not PbtA23.
I'm cutting myself a lot of slack for PbtA23. I'm not sure what that will look like. I could dabble in Belonging Outside Belonging or Forged in the Dark design on some days (both having grown from PbtA), I could write pieces of a Move a day and assemble a full move by the end of the week. I can write one word and call it a day. On some days I'll write bad stuff. No perfectionism, just chill, just doing my best.
I may not make it to the end of the year and that's okay. I really want to, and I'll do my best, but I'm also giving myself the option if I need it. Less hubris, more kindness, haha.
Anyway that's it! Originally I was going to post the moves once a week after collecting them, but uh, they're kinda a lot longer than my Dungeon23 entries. So I'll try posting them daily/every other day first and see how that feels?
If anyone wants to join me or just write moves once in a while I'd love to see it!! You can check out @aaronsrpgs, they've taken up the challenge too. I'm trying to convince @ostrichmonkey-games but he's wisely ignoring my attempts, pfft.
Going to start posting moves soonish, but here's a sneak peek!
As this post mentions, I'm eligible for Best Game Master | Indie at the CRIT Awards! If you enjoy my GMing on @merelyroleplayers, I hope you'll consider honouring me with a nomination!
If you're feeling extra generous, my work is also eligible in the Best Supplement or third party content category. To tie in with Merely Roleplayers' Monster of the Week campaign, I've been releasing mysteries for Monster of the Week; these three all came out within the CRIT Awards eligibility period:
Sherrydown Enquirer 3: Tourist Trap https://merelymatt.itch.io/touristtrap
Sherrydown Enquirer 4: Bad Dog https://merelymatt.itch.io/baddog
Sherrydown Enquirer 5: Quarry https://merelymatt.itch.io/quarry
The CRIT Awards: for your consideration
The Creator Recognition in TTRPG (CRIT) Awards are open to nominations until 1 June!
Things released between 1 Jan 2022 and 31 Jan 2023 are eligible. In the case of Merely Roleplayers, that means:
Main House productions: Vigil: Quarry
(Vigil: All Aboard is also on the borderline, the final story act came out on 7 Feb 2023)
Studio productions: Monumental Exit & The Feed (series 1)
(The Lost Andromeda Ward Christmas Special is also on the borderline, it kicked off on 14 December 2021 but extended into the eligibility period)
See our Past Productions page for more about all those productions.
Here's the CRIT Awards nomination form.
It would mean the world to us if you considered nominating Merely Roleplayers in some or all of these categories:
Best TTRPGs, Supplements, APs, and Channels of this year
Best storyline | In a AP: Vigil: Quarry (Merely Roleplayers)
Best Series: Vigil (Merely Roleplayers) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCMIHyd_TMSpZ_HMrmThX2HcM_zP2yR5-
Best NPC: Ernie Bering, agent of DoOm (Merely Roleplayers: Vigil)
Best Villain: The Stranger (Merely Roleplayers: Vigil)
Best in their TTRPG Category
Best Game Master | Indie: Matt Boothman
Best Player | Indie: choose your fighter—
Natalie Winter (for either Gwynned in Vigil: All Aboard or Sue Sherpa in Monumental Exit)
Alexander Pankhurst (for Mike Sherpa in Monumental Exit)
Marta Da Silva (for Harper in Vigil: All Aboard)
(also eligible are Ellen Gould and Josh Yard for The Feed, and Helen, Strat, Vikki and Chris Starkey for Vigil: Quarry – but Nat, Alex and Marta are professional actors and a nomination could make a real difference to them!)
Best Podcast: Merely Roleplayers
Best Audio and Sound Design | Podcast: Merely Roleplayers
Artist Categories
Best Instrumental of the year by a musician in TTRPG: Vigil theme by Alexander Pankhurst https://youtu.be/KRsdcFLK0F4?t=104
Enter your nominations in the CRIT Awards form or find out more about the awards
And if you don't fancy nominating us for all these categories, hopefully you'll shower some nomination love on other podcasts in the community who are doing incredible work, like @realmspod, Interstitial AP by @revryebread, @monsterhourpod, @legendlarkpod and @campaignskyjacks. We can't nominate ourselves so we'll be putting all of these luvvies and more forward instead!
Impulse Drive abstracts this into a debt 'fuse' which causes you problems when it fills up – there's a resolution roll at the end of a job or mission, and if you roll well enough one of your options is to keep up with payments, which mechanically looks like 'the debt fuse doesn't tick up this time'
It's my favourite way I've seen this Cowboy Bebop plot propulsion model done in games. It's always hanging over you. It keeps ticking up. When you do well on a mission you have to sacrifice part of your success just to keep the fuse where it is. It feels precarious like you're one screwup away from having repo mercs dispatched to hunt you down. Exactly the feeling you want
been thinking about space opera TTRPGs, and like the campaign model of taking dodgy cargo jobs to pay the mortgage and cover running costs of your spaceship, having to make sure maintenance is done and all that, and encountering problems on the way, space pirates, precursor ruins, customs checks, floating cryotubes containing frozen space princesses and the like
I've also been thinking about abstracting money, my background in playing ttrpgs leans more heavily towards D10 dice-pool games from white wolf than anything else, and generally in those games characters have a resource rating (between 0 and 5) that describes their living standard and access to spending money, that rating can change over the course of play but like usually characters are motivated by things other than money (trauma it's almost always trauma)
and really I'm wondering how to do the space opera thing, which usually contains rather a lot of accounting, while also abstracting cash (I don't want to do the accounting)
counting coins is not fun, I want there to be a more fun way to achieve that tone
Graphic by Cezar Capacle
All five issues of the Sherrydown Enquirer – each one of which is a combination Monster of the Week mystery and @merelyroleplayers: Vigil lore supplement – are part of this bundle, along with 60+ more spooky and supernatural RPGs!
In issue 1, Playtime, a teacher disappears during a rainy playtime at Sherrydown Primary, and all the kids say he was eaten by a shark
In issue 2, Cold Snap, something has awoken deep in the forest and now the seasons are all out of whack
In issue 3, Tourist Trap, the high street isn't the only thing that tacky new souvenir shop is killing
In issue 4, Bad Dog, rentacops are at war with the local teens and something savage is taking the chance to mark its territory
In issue 5, Quarry, the sound of hooves and the stain of blood herald the separation of the community into hunters and prey
Plus, each issue comes with details you can use to set your Monster of the Week games in middle England, instead of the game's default gun-totin' US setting!
Usually getting all 5 issues would set you back about £20; in the Supernatural bundle, $20 gets you all these and more than 60 other things, including lots of complete games.
Commission I did for a friend of his character Orion! @firstsonoffire
i recently tried playing masks: a new generation and designed this little android! they’re a wildly unethical experiment who is three weeks old and has killed a man :)