game report: Moonsailors (TTRPG)

[yhlee]

[repost from 2020]

Moonsailors is a zine-based mini-RPG available for $5 from itch.io, with an option to email the designer for a free copy if the cost is a hardship.

Moonsailors is a GM-less, one-session story/ttrpg game for 3-5 players where solitary travelers drift among the stars, each looking for something that they may or may not find. As you explore, the other players will help you tell your story by asking prompting questions. Will you open the door you hear sounds behind? How does the heat of the planet feel on your skin? What do you do if the ground starts cracking beneath your feet? What do you pick off the menu?

Set up is quick, so you can start playing right away - just make up your character, find a name, draw your ship, and then you're off to wander the stars. The only other things you'll need tell your story & help others tell theirs is some paper and things to write with. Will your traveler decide to explore the abandoned apartments of the City Ship Sage, or will they salvage equipment from Mining Base Celadon? Will they seek life upon the shattered planet of Viridian? The details of the locations are left sparse so that you can decide what's true about it for your session.

Wherever you go, you'll collect & leave evidence of your being there. While your characters may never actually meet, you might find the things that have been left behind and you'll certainly leave some impact of your own.

Full disclosure: we did not play this game as designed, because this game was not set up to deal with a 100000000% pure Gamist (Joe), a Chaotic Evil teenager (Ara), and someone who was sincerely trying to play the game as intended (me). So in that sense our play session was a "failure," not because of any problem with the game design, but because of misaligned player goals. HOWEVER, we had a ton of fun, even the failure mode generated interesting discussion, and we actually want to mod this and play it as a family again, so in that sense it's also a success. ( Read more... )

[game report] Crown of Kings: The Shamutanti Hills (TTRPG)

[yhlee]

[repost from 2020]

Tonight I ran the first chapter, The Shamutanti Hills, of the Crown of Kings campaign for Advanced Fighting Fantasy, a simple system that's an elaboration of the Fighting Fantasy system in that series of gamebooks. Behind the cut will be spoilers both for the campaign and for the gamebook series by Steve Jackson, Sorcery!, that it's based on. ( Read more... )

ETA: Used a Tabletop Audio playlist to add ambience, but I think this was more for me than either Joe or Ara! They both seemed oblivious. XD Ah well, it's fun for me and does no harm.