I'm feeling a bit envious of people on dice.camp who keep posting statuses about their ttrpg projects or games or what have you.
While I'm not currently running anything, the thing is... I have a project of my own, too. It's just that... It doesn't feel like something worth writing about.
But since this is a dedicated ttrpg server. Let's give it a try, anyway!
#ttrpg #Tektoa #Tinyd6 #foreverGM
For months now, I've been obsessed with an idea of a pulpy/steampunk setting that plays like a crossover between King Kong's Skull Island and a western. A Lost World, but as a Wild West Frontier.
Another huge source of inspiration were Victorian adventure novels, from Jules Verne to H. Ridder Haggard.
A third great source of inspiration were old adventure movies. Did you know they used to make adventure films and westerns for adults? Movies that were a bit more gritty and less cartoonish than modern day blockbusters? Movies like Zulu and African Queen and Man Who Would Be King and Magnificent Seven? 
Not that they were perfect, mind you. You can easily find plenty of racism and imperialism in them.
Which... is kind of thing that interests me too. Because you see...
... I kinda want to dig into these themes.
Karl Freund's amazing #FrontierScum gave me the idea of this predatory corporation looking to exploit the New World for all its worth, no matter the cost for the nature, the workers, or the natives.
Kinda like the third season of the TV series #Deadwood, when George Hearst tries to buy off all the gold claims around the town using whatever means necessary.
Player characters should naturally align against such villain.
So far, we got:
- exotic setting with dinosaurs, jungles and ancient ruins
- victorian adventurers and some sort of Wild West cowboys/mercenaries
- the primary villain is the predatory corporation exploiting the land and the people.
Let's stop here for the time being. I want to present this idea in more digestible chunks. :-)
Choosing the right RPG for my Colonization of the Lost World setting was a challenge.
I'm not a fan of crunchy games, yet, I didn't want to use a pure storytelling game, either. Also, it kinda sounds a bit like an OSR game, with players going out from their base to explore the wilderness around them.
Also, also, I would probably run this game over Discord, so I didn't want to burden my players with too many rules or funky dice.
#FrontierScum seems really fun for one-shots, but I'm not sure I could run a whole campaign using that system.
#OwlHootTrail looks like fun, but it is too much about transposing D&D classes and races into the Western setting.
#SavageWorlds is just a tiny bit too crunchy for me.
I also checked out two setting-appropriate #Ubiquity games: #HollowEarthExpedition and #LeaguesofAdventure, but, for some reason, they just didn't click for me.
I was even thinking of building my own RPG system, starting with #YearZeroEngine that powers #Vaesen, Alien and Blade Runner RPGs. And then, someone mentioned that #TinyCthulhu was on sale on DrivethruRPG.
I never heard of TinyD6 system before, but I was immediately delighted. In TinyD6, you use the d6 dice, and have to roll either 5 or 6 for a success. If you have an advantage, you roll three d6. If you have a disadvantage, roll one d6. That's pretty much it.
While simple, there's juuust enough crunchiness to it. There are different categories of weapons. There are Traits giving you advantage on certain types of checks. There are simple rules for traps, magic, all kinds of stuff!
The game is light yet robust enough that you can tinker with it. I created my own starting archetypes, equipment list and bunch of monsters, all based on pre-existing material.
As a plus, there are bunch of dinosaur stats already in the game!
So, I cobbled my personal mix of #TinyD6 rules, combining aspects of Tiny Cthulhu, Tiny Gunslingers, Advanced Tiny Dungeons, and Bestiarium Vocabulum: A TinyD6 Bestiary.
And yet, basic rules are still quite simple and clear. Whatever over complication there is is solely my fault.
I made a Google Docs document for my players, copying relevant rules. All in all, there's about 30 pages covering combat, equipment, character creation, adventuring... Everything!