Monthly Archives: September 2021

Cypher System

Fixed Dice, General, Leans Gaming, RPG Finder, Timeless
  • Genre: General
  • Setting: Timeless
  • Gameplay: Leans Storytelling   
  • Mechanics: Fixed Dice 1d20
  • Publisher: Monte Cook Games

Highlights

  1. Genre/Setting agnostic system
  2. Numenera is the most well supported implementation
  3. Campaign setting books come out regularly for different genres

The Cypher System is a game engine designed to maximize storytelling, and to provide game masters with a flexible rule system that can be used for any campaign setting they can imagine. Numenera is the most prolific game that uses the Cypher System, but Monte Cook Games produces new campaign setting books that provide tools to help customize the system for other genres and settings. Other campaign settings provided include Stay Alive, a survival horror genre; The Stars Are Fire, for science fiction and science fantasy genres; and We Are All Mad Here, which provides a fairy tale / Alice in Wonderland genre option. A unique element to Cypher System games is the lack of the Game Master rolling any dice at all. The GM sets difficulties for challenges and the players resolve those tests on a single d20 role. This is how everything is resolved in game, including combat. Character creation is based on narrative descriptions of your character, what makes them unique, and a few core stats which makes the process from concept to gaming incredibly fast.

Official Site: The Cypher System

Buy it: Monte Cook Games, Drive Thru RPG

SuperAge

Deep Storytelling, Dice Pool, Modern, RPG Finder, Science Fantasy
  • Genre: Science Fantasy
  • Setting: Modern
  • Gameplay: Deep Storytelling   
  • Mechanics: Dice Pool d6
  • Publisher: Strange Machine Games

Highlights

  1. Allows for a very narrative driven character build based on archetypes with unique combinations of powers
  2. Core book comes with full rules, pregenerated playable characters, a significant number of npcs, and a full starter adventure

Official Site: SuperAge

Buy it: Strange Machine Games, Indie Press Revolution, Drive Thru RPG

Tales from the Loop

Dice Pool, Leans Storytelling, Modern, RPG Finder, Sci-Fi
  • Genre: Sci-Fi
  • Setting: Modern
  • Gameplay: Leans Storytelling   
  • Mechanics: Dice Pool d6
  • Publisher: Free League

Highlights

  1. Incredibly evocative artwork of a 1980’s with weird science
  2. Ideal for one-shots but linked stories can lead to campaigns
  3. Has specialty dice, but standard d6’s of two colors work as well.

Tales from the Loop is a science fiction adventure game set in the 1980, where you play a group of kids who stumble across inexplicable technology that will change your life forever. Players use a set of d6s and build a dice pool based on their attributes and skills to over come challenges. The game uses a failing-forward storytelling mechanic such that they can still “fail” a role, but that doesn’t necessarily indicate pure failure. Rather they can choose to take on a condition to move past the obstacle. This makes the game much more forgiving for new players, as well as providing a method for narrative feedback and roleplay fodder between the GM and the players. The game has also been developed as a live-action series on Amazon Prime, which serves as a great jumping off point for groups who want to know more about the world of this game.

Official Site: Tales from the Loop

Buy it: Free League, Modiphius, Drive Thru RPG

Alien

Dice Pool, Future, Horror, Leans Storytelling, RPG Finder
  • Genre: Horror  
  • Setting: Future 
  • Gameplay: Leans Storytelling            
  • Mechanics: Dice Pool             D6
  • Publisher: Free League

Highlights

  1. Set in the universe of Ridley Scott’s Alien franchise
  2. Has specialty dice, but regular d6s can be used as well. 2 colors needed
  3. Can be used for one-shots or campaigns depending on how deadly MOTHER (the GM) sets the difficulty.

Alien is the officially licensed science fiction horror role playing game set in the universe of the Alien film franchise. Characters play humans and androids on missions in space that go horrifically awry thanks to the deadly combination of corporate greed and negligence and the harsh realities of an uncaring and hostile universe. The books include a wealth of information on the campaign setting and games can be situated anywhere along the Alien timeline. Players need two different colored dice pools: one to represent their skills and another to represent their accumulated stress from the mission and the danger they face. The game master can fine tune the difficulty of the game to allow for a short and brutal one-shot or provide a slower burn over a longer campaign.

Official Site: Alien RPG

Buy it: Free League Publishing, Drive Thru RPG

Thousand Year Old Vampire

Deep Storytelling, Horror, Middle Ages, RPG Finder, Unique
  • Genre: Horror  
  • Setting: Middle Ages
  • Gameplay: Deeply Narrative             
  • Mechanics: Unique Follow the Dice
  • Publisher: Tim Hutchings

Highlights

  1. Solo journaling game!
  2. Dice don’t resolve conflicts, only lead to new prompts in the character’s story
  3. Great for people who want to lean into history and research for that verisimilitude.

Thousand Year Old Vampire is a solo journaling game, where you write in a diary about your experiences as a blood sucking monster. The problem is that time takes its toll on you and you only have so many pages. Memories that were precious to your character hundreds of years ago are erased to make room for new memories you want to hold onto. The dice rolls are how you move from prompt to prompt throughout the book. It is evocative, scary, tragic, and encourages deep dives into real-world events to find hooks for your character’s escapades.

Official Site: Thousand Year Old Vampire

Buy it: Tim Hutchings, Drive Thru RPG, or Indie Press Revolution

Welcome to RPG Finder

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