Discworld: First Impressions of the Quickstart of the new Discworld TTRPG by Modiphius

What do I want from a Discworld TTRPG, anyway?

I have read and loved the Discworld books for decades. This doesn't give me any particular ownership over them, but it means that I have certain feelings about the Discworld and the kinds of stories that get told there. These feelings necessarily color my expectations for a TTRPG set in that world. You may have different expectations, and this is fine - "takes all sorts to make a world"*, don't it?

So before I dive into the new Discworld Quickstart from Modiphius, let me try to articulate what aspects of Discworld stories bring me joy, so I know what I'm looking to bring to the table. 

*Going Postal


Iconic Heroes:  

Robin D. Laws' distinction between iconic heroes and dramatic heroes is key here:
While a dramatic hero follows a character arc in which he is changed by his experience of the world (examples: Orpheus, King Lear, Ben Braddock), an iconic hero undertakes tasks (often serially) and changes the world, restoring order to it, by remaining true to his essential self. [Emphasis mine]

To me, the most endearing characters of the Discworld are eternal in this way. Granny Weatherwax, Sam Vimes, Mustrum Ridcully, Moist von Lipwig, Rincewind, Tiffany Aching, as well as the supporting characters who recur in their stories, all bring their essential qualities to bear on the world around them. They are able to affect change because they stay true to themselves even when the weight of trends, and sometimes the story itself, pushes in another direction.

This isn't to say that the main characters of the Discworld don't learn or change, or that they're invincible emotionally or physically. But they continue to embody their central traits and remain true to their selves, and I think this gives them the ability to accomplish heroic and dazzling things that the villains and the background characters of the Discworld don't.



A Humanist Outlook

What was it that Granny Weatherwax had said once? "Evil starts when you begin to treat people as things."*

This is a theme that flowered more as the series went on, but was prominent at least as early as the third book, Equal Rites. You can usually tell the villains in a Discworld novel pretty quickly because they're the ones discounting the humanity of the people around them. This is not to say that Discworld's heroes are saints; indeed, they're all willing to inflict harm on others, to manipulate them, and to otherwise behave in ways that remind you that good is not the same thing as nice. But they always, infallibly, fall on the side of the inherent dignity and agency of sentient creatures ("humanity," give or take, for the setting).** 

Case in point: while Death (he who speaks with THE CAPITAL LETTERS) appears in every Discworld book, he doesn't become a true hero of Discworld until he learns an empathy for humanity, becoming the main character of Reaper Man (the 11th book) in a story that is lovely, heartbreaking, and weirdly shares the stage with a storyline about a parasitic shopping mall.

*I Shall Wear Midnight (book 38)
**Incidentally, I never felt that the Rincewind books brought out this theme as well as the others, so they never resonated as much with me. Rincewind exists more to parody fantasy tropes, which is fine but doesn't really move the needle for me. Once the tourist Twoflower becomes prominent in Interesting Times (book #17), he introduces more of the humanist outlook that I felt was lacking in Rincewind's stories; same with Cohen the Barbarian in The Last Hero (book 27).


Humor

Pratchett's humor comes from all angles: observational jokes about the human condition - sometimes sharp, sometimes gentle; puns and wordplay; absurdism; parody of media tropes; and unexpected footnotes.*

Importantly, Pratchett's humor is in line with his humanism. Laughs never come at the expense of someone's degradation. In other words, the jokes that are about people or institutions are all "punching up," if they aren't puns or one of the other kinds of humor. These are the jokes of someone who has a great love for humans and the absurd universe we live in, sometimes laughing through tears, but always maintaining a central belief in the value of simply being human. That's a great foundation to build a tone on - how well does it translate to a game? 

*Not this one. You expected this one.


How Well Does the Game Bring Out These Elements?

Now that I've laid out the 3 elements that are most important and impactful for me in the Discworld universe, let's look through the quickstart and see how good a match this game seems to be for me. I'm going to limit this discussion to the ways the mechanics and theming serve my particular interests, but if there's a mechanic that seems particularly delightful or clunky I'll call that out as well.

Tone - A Good Start!

The quickstart has a section of Tone towards the beginning, and the tone they're going for seems to agree pretty well with what's important for me. Some examples: 
  • "The focus is on the characters, the world, and the words. People are defined by traits, not numbers."
  • "we encourage players to bend the English language far beyond what is usually considered reasonable. Terry Pratchett used words in ways that were unexpected, in combinations and meanings that were playful, joyful and often unreasonable. We heartily encourage you to do the same."
This is great! "People are defined by traits, not numbers" seems to dial in the "Iconic Hero" framing that I'm looking for. Your player character will affect the world using their traits, their inherent qualities, rather than trying to get a numerically-defined edge in their skills or characteristics. 

Also very happy to see the explicit promotion of humor based on language. 

However, I'm not quite sure what to make of this:
  • "The world and the players vie to control the story as Narrativium sluices finely through everything, gently pushing things towards a satisfying conclusion."
Narrativium is a special thing in Discworld. As Modiphius explains it: "Discworld itself operates like a story, and top research wizards have found that it is helped along by an element found in abundance on Discworld: Narrativium."

In the TTRPG, this leads to the fundamental tension of the game: "The Disc has a story it wants to tell, and left alone will spin on much as it has always done. [However] the players want to change this story to one more to their liking."

In one interpretation, this tension plays well into the Iconic Hero idea: the world has a certain way that it wants to be, and it's up to the Hero to bend the world into a better one through being themselves. However, in another interpretation, the Narrativium device might make gameplay more about overcoming (and maybe parodying) fantasy and related tropes. In fact, the early Discworld books were more about this, sometimes explicitly as in the 12th book, Witches Abroad. We'll have to see which focus the rest of the mechanics give more weight to.

Basic Gameplay Loop

The basic gameplay is set up around contested rolls between the player and GM. 
  • When the PC does something with a risk of failure (a "test"), the Player chooses a Trait and justifies to the GM why this is a reasonable trait to use. 
  • Traits include everything from Name to Background to groups and roles in them, to consequences earned from failures or bad luck. Basically everything on the character sheet is a Trait that can be used towards a Test.
  • The GM then decides how hard it is by choosing different die sizes (d4, d6, d10 or d12). Interestingly, this is not based on the difficulty of the action, but by how well the trait fits the action and how well the Player uses their words to justify it.
  • Then the player rolls the chosen die, and the GM always rolls a D8. For reference, a player rolling a d4 will win about 1/5 of the time and tie 1/8 of the time; with a d12, the player wins about 3/4 of the time and ties 1/12 of the time.
  • You can also have some replacement rolls as another PC helps the main PC or the GM re-rolls using an NPC's trait. So you have potentially 2 or 3 opposed rolls for each test.
  • A failure results in consequences or twists that are represented as new traits.
The act of justifying a trait is likely to introduce a LOT of wordplay humor and keep things light at the table - so long as the GM leans towards generosity. If this part gets sour, the game is going to be a miserable experience.

In a pull directly from the books, the players can also propose a plan so ridiculously unlikely and over-the-top, and hopefully so charming, that the GM decides "it's a million-to-one chance, but it just might work" - and therefore will. However, the Quickstart advises these to be rare - in practice, I would say if they're happening once per session, that's too often.

Also, death (the state of being, not the Anthropomorphic Personification) is a rare-to-never event for PCs. This should give players enough confidence to take wild, interesting, funny risks and use sub-optimal traits, as long as the mood at the table encourages that.

So, How Well Does it Support The Things I Want to See? 

Pretty well! The Iconic Hero piece is there. The Humor - always so, so hard to design for at the table - is potentially there in the meta-wrangling over justifying Trait uses for skills. The Humanism, I think, will depend entirely on the kinds of adventures that come out in support of the game, and the things that GMs and their players do at the table. There does not seem to be any inherent humanistic leanings in the mechanics or design. 

In summary, I think Modiphius really understood some of the most important aspects of the Discworld and did some very interesting and creative work to bring those to the table. We'll see how it plays at the table, but I am pretty optimistic that they're on the right track. 

Also, there is an adventure that comes with the Quickstart, which I will try to come back and review. But it's getting late and I've got some work to do, so let's leave it here.

Stray Notes on Mechanics

The system is designed to support one-shots rather than long campaign play. This suits the tone of the book series, where characters recurred but plots usually wrapped up within a single book. I wonder if some guidance will be given in the full rules on sustaining characters across one-shots. 

I worry about the game dragging with all the opposed rolls and managing new traits as a result. Optimistically, this could feel like the kind of narrative digression that shows up as footnotes in the Discworld books, but at an exciting moment this could really bog the table down. In the full rules, I would consider either recommending that Tests be restricted only for important actions and used for decisive moments, or else offering an option for unopposed rolls where the player simply rolls the chosen die against a target number of 4 or 5, without bringing in help or luck or any of those.

Granted I haven't seen the game in action yet, but it also feels like it puts a lot of work on the GM, which may be very tough for new players or tables used to more narrative collaboration. Having to come up with interesting, multi-leveled consequences will be familiar to GMs who've run games like Blades in the Dark or the Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars, but it is work, and not everyone enjoys it or is well suited for it.

Related to this, I also think having 4 levels of dice for the GM to choose from might be too many. It feels like it will be hard to meaningfully explain why a D6 or D10 is a more precisely correct die to use on a Test. I might recommend dropping those two middle dice and just using D4, D8 and D12, but this might not be that big a deal [Edit: I thought the players had a D8 option as well, but the D8 is reserved for the GM, so this isn't as tricky as I thought at first.]

Chaosium Con 2024: or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Allergy Meds

This past weekend (4/18-21, 2024) I traveled to the 3rd Chaosium Con, in Ypsilanti (Ann Arbor?) Michigan. I went there with three goals in mind: 

  • See my friends from the internet;
  • Encourage people to express their creativity, in a concrete way, by publishing their projects in Chaosium's community content programs; and
  • Don't miss too much time with illness.
Did I accomplish these goals, and more? You'll have to read on to find out.

(I did accomplish them. But read on to find out how!).

If, in reading about my experience with the Con, you are moved to want to attend next year's, I thoroughly encourage you to do that. If you have any questions, please reach out! You can find me on Facebook, on Bluesky, and in a number of Discords, primarily that of Symphony Entertainment.

OK - let's, as the children say, get after it.

Arrival: or, The Joy of Being Hugged to Death

I work from home, and I have 2 small kids, and I keep pretty busy generally, so on a given day I don't speak face-to-face with a lot of people outside my family. But I have a lot of friends online, via the community that's formed around Call of Cthulhu and related horror gaming, and we talk constantly. Discord, however, can't hold a candle to meeting up in-person. As I told my kids, "This weekend is like summer camp for me - I get to go see my friends that I only see once a year!"

And most of these folks are huggers! None more so, famously, than Bridgett Jeffries, who hugs as though your ribs have personally offended her. Other people I had a chance to hug, while I'm name-dropping: Heinrich Moore, Rina Heinze, Al Smith, the Keepers Doc, Mike Diamond, Miranda, Nate, Bucho, Leslie (XPLovecat) and William Horn, Nathan and Sam Pidde, and others I'm forgetting because it's late and I'm tired. I did not hug the British Chaosium staff, mostly, but we did exchange a pleasant but reserved nod of the head, as is their custom.

Thursday Night: or, Getting Into Character

While the Con has previously had Thursday-night welcome events, this year was the first time it was themed. We gathered for a Speakeasy, and let me tell you that people TOOK IT SERIOUSLY. 

Blessedly, because the theme was 1920s-30s, I was able to get a cosplay look using more-or-less modern clothes that - and this is important - could be obtained cheaply and quickly. Cosplaying as a big dude, if you're not willing to make the clothes yourself or buy them bespoke, is tricky! But one waistcoat-and-watchchain and a straw hat later, I was in business. 

The author wearing a waistcoat and straw hat, and holding an antique camera.

The Speakeasy was great fun - some pleasant, not-too-loud music, a room that was lively but not too crowded and only a little intolerably hot, and a chance to meet everyone else I was looking forward to meeting but didn't name above. I brought with my an antique camera that had been my grandfather's, from 1940, it turns out - take THAT, historical accuracy! I learned that if you walk around with an old-looking camera, all sorts of camera enthusiasts will come out of the woodwork and ask you questions about it that you are in no way prepared to answer. Next time I'll know better.

The author with Bridgett Jeffries and Matt "Keeper Doc" Tracey


Following the speakeasy was the LARP, hosted by Symphony Entertainment. It was written by Bridgett and Heinrich, with NPCs played by Nate and Rina. It was the first LARP for almost everyone, including its creators! I've never done one before either, but I was blown away by how smoothly it went, how intuitive and unobtrusive the mechanics were, and by the number of genuinely creepy moments the runners managed to build in to an experience that was overall pretty hands-off. I won't spoil much about it, but the payoff was fantastic and the event really opened my eyes to what can be done in horror spaces with interactivity and large spaces. 

It also helped me to gauge how comfortable I am with live, in-person improv. For whatever reason I've always struggled with improvising in this kind of setting, needing either to be myself or to be chatting online, or to be in the one-step-removed space of being a Keeper or player to really get into a flow. But with the warmup exercise we did as a group (thanks Nate for leading it!), and through knowing many of the participants ahead of time, I found I was able to take down some of the self-conscious walls and lean into the fictional persona.

Friday: or, How Can I Help You?

Friday morning, I moderated two panels. The first was on Game Prep, and I was joined by Rina, Leslie/XPLovecat, Mike Diamond, and Dom Allen. I hadn't met Dom (of the Apocalypse Players) before, but he is a joy and was a welcome perspective at the panel. This one was well attended, probably 25 people in the room, and it sparkled. With the discussion guide I planned well in advance of the panel (i.e. was still writing it as people filtered into the room), we covered all kinds of different prep styles, when each might be appropriate, and how Keepers might get comfortable with using less prep if they so desire.

The second, "Become a Community Content Creator," is a highlight for me each year, as it's a chance for those of us involved in Chaosium's CC programs to help reach folks who are looking to move into that space. We had about 10 people in the room, which is great given what we were counterprogrammed against (just the "What's Coming Soon for Chaosium" juggernaut panel!), and the audience was really involved and had good questions. I was joined by Leslie again, Heinrich, Al, and Nick Brooke, and I think we really covered the whole spectrum of writing and publishing. Every time we do this panel I feel like we're planting seeds that will one day blossom into fantastic new content for Cthulhu, Runequest and other games.

I think I enjoy this kind of thing even more than I enjoy running or playing in games, which is what made the final Friday activity such a huge success for me. I ran a workshop on Cthulhu Scenario Design, where I was joined by 10 would-be writers with ideas at various stages of development. It went better than I'd hoped! Each person seemed to get useful advice and sounding-boards to help them move forward with their scenario or product ideas, and one attendee who had come in as "just a player," not looking to write, left the session with three (3!!) scenario ideas. Several attendees asked me to run it again next year, and I will. 

I brought scented markers for that, but we didn't wind up using them. I also made myself crazy trying to find big sticky pads that were small enough to fit in my luggage. We didn't use them either. Oh well. C'est la guerre. 

At some point on Friday I went to the Apocalypse Players' Live Show. The takeaway from this experience is that trained actors can be VERY GOOD at live roleplaying shows. It was very funny.

I took it easy most of the rest of the day because I am 40 years old and I have two small kids and sometimes I just want to nap, but then I brought a bottle of Maryland Rye and a bag of home-baked challah rolls downstairs to the lobby and found a bunch of friends who were willing to help me finish both of them.

I also was fighting off a cold/allergies and was STUFFED TO THE GILLS with Mucinex and Allegra. My personal medication strategy was to fill myself just shy of the toxic dosage of allergy meds and ibuprofen to fend off any illness or headaches. Last year I missed the HPLHS prop-heavy game due to a sudden migraine; this year I was determined to prevent it, or die trying.

Saturday: or, The Greatest Props I Have Ever Seen In My Life (That I Can't Show You)

Saturday morning, we had our annual Mimosa Mixer for community content creators, which is the brainchild of Heinrich Moore. This event also went swimmingly, everybody got to meet new people, and I got to have some really interesting conversations about interactive and immersive fiction, and art, and all kinds of things that sparked my imagination for future Cthulhu work. The mimosas were OK, but they were free, and that earns them a few points. Outside the mixer, Chaosium was selling copies of most of the Community Content Print-on-Demand products, including two of mine (Dream House and In Strange Seas). I saw someone buying my books and I offered to sign them but I got distracted - if that was you, bring them next year and I'll sign them!




Saturday afternoon, while I carefully and neurotically monitored for the slightest sign of a headache, was the Ain't Slayed Nobody live show with Cuppy Cup, Bridgett, Rina, and a couple of somewhat famous players that I don't really know that well. The group played a scenario from a forthcoming Chaosium book, they almost got TPKd, and everybody laughed a bunch.




Saturday night was the one actual tabletop game I played all weekend, the one I had missed due to headache last year, my White Whale: the game run by Sean Branney of the HP Lovecraft Historical Society. The HPLHS is famous for the quality of their props, and OH BOY did Sean deliver (with the behind-the-scenes help of Andrew Leman and, no doubt, others). The game was a bit of a struggle to fit into a 4-hour time slot because of the complexity of the plot and the necessity to read through a number of extremely well-produced handouts, but we were RAPT from beginning to end. Knowing there was going to be a time crunch, we sort of bombed through the scenario in places, but when the highlight prop of the evening came out, a giant [REDACTED] that must have taken weeks to produce, we all ooh'ed and aah'ed and took pictures of it for like 10 minutes. 

I can't tell you what it is, or show you any pictures. You will, if the stars are right, be able to purchase it from HPLHS in the future. I suggest you do so. Start saving up now.

Saturday night after the game, I wound up talking with Heinrich in our room for like 3 hours, the first hour of which was spent animatedly planning out the mechanics and general plot of [REDACTED - you'll find out nxt year], after which I apparently texted Matt Tracey at 12:45 AM to tell him I had figured out how to do it - he received this with good grace. 

After 1 AM I turned into "Very Tired and Talkative Evan" and I don't think he got a word in edgewise after that. For this I remain abashed and apologetic, but Heinrich is gracious and a good friend. 

Sunday: or, That's All, Folks.

I went home on Sunday. I got to say goodbye to most of my friends, and I handled it pretty well. I will see them again. 

If our Uber had come 20 minutes later I'd have missed my flight, but the trip home was otherwise uneventful. 

That afternoon, my mind filled with all the experiences and exciting new ideas of the Con, I took my kids to a skate park so they could ride their scooters around and look cool. 

Balance in all things.

Stray Thoughts:

The grounds of the hotel are very pretty... but their pool does not work and will never be available. 

There was a wedding while we were there, but the RuneQuest guys failed to invade it with their kilts and swords.

I love this Con. I'm ready to go back to normal life. Until next year. 

Balance in all things. 







7th Sea - Weird Encounters to Have at Sea: Boneflower Worms

World Ocean Day is June 8, 2022! In celebration of the oceans and the weird little monsters that live in it, all week I'll be sharing a variety of strange creatures and people to encounter below the waves in 7th Sea.

These posts are extracted from a long-shelved project I did called The Forever Reef. I'll be happy to share a copy if you send me a message on Facebook or Twitter.

Boneflower Worms; AI image created at NightCafe

Today's nightmare: BONEFLOWER WORMS! [CW: bones; flowers; worms]
Little invertebrates, innocent on their own, but they do tend to travel in swarms. Should your Heroes find themselves in a sea cave, murky shoreline, or coral reef, they're likely to learn that all building materials are fair game in the sea, even your own living bones.

Boneflower Worms

Monstrous Qualities: Relentless, Destructive, Chitinous

The boneflower worms were bred and cultivated by the Sirens (more to come on them soon), prized for their decorative value and appeal to the Sirens' aesthetic. 

The leech-like worms, about six to ten inches long, are soft, slippery things. When they are between shells, their skins are the color of dried blood streaked with dull yellow. Their name comes from their magnificent shells: architectural achievements in the medium of bone. They grow these shells with calcium taken from the bones of other animals, living or dead. 

The worms swarm around an unsuspecting vertebrate creature with a non-cartilage skeleton – whales, humans, and the like. Bare skeletons are easiest, but the worms don't shy away from undecomposed, or even living, sources. The worms burrow their drill-like mouth parts into the flesh of their target until they reach bone. They then vomit into the wound a substance that reduces the bone to slurry, after which they eagerly lap up the calcium. They excrete this material out their other end in a beautiful, complex structure – the boneflower.

Crafted into loops, whorls, spirals and other patterns, the worms use these boneflowers to protect their vulnerable bodies as they feed. The process of burrowing and forming the boneflower takes less than a minute, but the longer they're able to feed uninterrupted, the larger and more complex shells they can make. The shells last for up to a week, after which they've usually chipped and dissolved and fallen away. When the shell is gone, the worm seeks out new bone.

As a monster, these worms seem manageable at first. However, they tend to swarm in groups of at least ten, often as many as fifteen or twenty.

You might successfully cut three or four away from your body, but a few will still find a way to attach. A few moments later your own skeleton is being used against you, as you find yourself hacking away at a shell made of your bones that protects your attacker, your limbs growing weak and useless as the bones are liquefied and devoured.

It may be some consolation to know that your bones are being made into something beautiful.

Tactics:

An encounter with the boneflower worms means an overwhelming, panicky struggle. Only a few out of each swarm will live to successfully feed on a victim, but overall they succeed in sufficient numbers to continue their species.

The worms are primarily attracted to dead, dying or struggling animals. Scents of decay or of panic will draw them in great swarms. They will often wriggle along behind a victim as it flees from something more dangerous, or wait for it to become lost and exhausted. Once their prey is engaged and distracted with something else, the worms tend to “bloom” in a large, undulating, tangled body, emerging from cracks in the rock to surround the prey.

Boneflower Worms: Stats

Brute Squads: This monster functions as one or more brute squads of Strength 5 each. However, it also has monstrous qualities, described below. When spending Danger Points for the monstrous quality, spend them only for one brute squad at a time, not for individual members of the squad. 

Monstrous Qualities:
Relentless: Any attempts to evade or escape from this Monster cost 2 Raises. Spend a DP to have the Monster enter a Scene, so long as it is physically possible.

After 1st Round of combat, add:
Destructive: Spend a DP to have the monster destroy one item or non-vital limb

Chitinous: Spend a DP to negate all Wounds dealt to this monster from 1 attack.

Tactical Tips: 
You could introduce the Worms as the only monster in a Scene, but they really shine when you pile them on top of an already tricky situation. Let the Heroes get involved in fighting a large monster, or navigating a dangerous Hazard, or get them fleeing from something really frightening (the Devil Jonah, perhaps?). Then spring these Worms on them. If a Hero or an NPC ever falls Helpless, the worms will seek them out for preference. 

Want to have your own wild adventures I'm the world of 7th Sea? Try this out: Put That Thing Back Where it Came From, or So Help Me... is a brand-new, randomized heist adventure. Perfect for conventions or a one-shot at home!

7th Sea - Weird Encounters to Have at Sea: Dmitri the Fish

All across Théah, the weather is warming, and thoughts turn to summer. Why not go for a swim, and see what we find?

Should your crew of Heroes spend any amount of time in or near the water, they will inevitably encounter one of the truly weird things that dwells there. Some of these are monsters, sure, but even monsters may have gentle hearts. 

World Ocean Day is June 8, 2022! In celebration of the oceans and the weird little monsters that live in it, all week I'll be sharing a variety of strange creatures and people to encounter below the waves in 7th Sea.

These posts are extracted from a long-shelved project I did called The Forever Reef. I'll be happy to share a copy if you send me a message on Facebook or Twitter.

Photo: Lance Anderson, via Unsplash

In this post we'll meet Dmitri, a kindly soul who made a bargain with Ussura's Mother Spirit, and has at last learned to live with his new situation. Heroes may find him in any of the 7 Seas, where he may act as a guide, an informant, or just a strange encounter along the way.

Arriving in Aragosta filled with tales of monsters and deities learned at his mother’s feet in Ussura, Dimitri was ready to join up with a Rahuri whaling crew and help protect the world from the behemoths
who swim beneath the ships.

He lied his way onto a ship, claiming that he was an expert sailor and whalehunter. Once aboard, he prepared to make his fortune – but it didn’t quite work out. Like so many sailors, Dimitri never learned to swim. While still in Aragosta harbor, he fell from the rigging into the sea and began to drown.

At the last moment, Matushka appeared to him in the deep water, out of the mists of his hazy childhood
recollections. She offered him a chance: learn from her a lesson about honesty, and she would save his life. What choice did he have but to agree?

She gave him the ability to transform into a fish; or, rather, fish, not a fish. Instead of one fish, he became a school of fish, a glittering, flashing crowd of swift swimmers. In time, his mind reasserted itself, though he has never mastered the trick of returning to his human form. In his form of fish, he is able to  communicate without words. Those he wishes to speak with hears his voice in their minds.

He knows a great deal about the deep seas, and is a valuable source of information on the weirder monsters and hazards that lurk there. He tends to notice things that fish notice - currents, temperature, oxygen levels, salinity, predators - so Heroes may have to be patient with him if they want a specific piece of information.

It is said that he has a lover, perhaps a sailor or a fisherwoman. This is true, but the details of this relationship, beyond their shared love of a good joke, are entirely their private affair.

Want to have your own wild adventures I'm the world of 7th Sea? Try this out: Put That Thing Back Where it Came From, or So Help Me... is a brand-new, randomized heist adventure. Perfect for conventions or a one-shot at home!

What Have I Done?!?! (A resume of my TTRPG work)

Hi! I'm Evan. 

I create and develop TTRPG projects focusing on people who stand up against horrors both mundane and supernatural.

Here are the things I've worked on, and where to find them!

Writer


Best-Selling Community Content for Call of Cthulhu [Chaosium's Miskatonic Repository]:

Best-Selling Community Content for 7th Sea [JWP/Chaosium's Explorers Society]


Other Work

Sourcebook with 3 scenarios for Call of Cthulhu [Chaosium], forthcoming
Scenario as part of the Dreamlands Sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu [Chaosium], forthcoming
Scenario as part of anthology for Call of Cthulhu [Chaosium], forthcoming

Developer/Editor/Project Manager:


In my day job, I manage projects worth $15M + and a team of over 20 researchers, programmers, and analysts. These skills transfer to complex RPG team efforts!

Short Works





The Shanties of Hell

A tattered ghost ship sailing above a hellish landscape

 
Aboard the whaler "Sovereign Elaine," somewhere in the Atabean

In the middle watch, sky dark and clear, a boy sits high in the rigging and whistles a strange and mournful tune. He scarcely notices the gunner's mate climbing up from below until a heavy hand falls on his shoulder.

"Don't ye let the Skipper hear ye a-whistlin' that chanty there, boy," the man says, low and urgent. "That's one of the chanties of hell, that is. How d'ye come to know it?"

"Heard it from me father, sir."

"Aye, maybe ye did, but if he learn't it first-hand he'd never have let ye go to sea. Run away then, did ye?"

The boy nods. The man settles down heavy on the yard next to him, looking thoughtful. 

"Well, and in your father's house did ye ever hear him tell that he'd come by a partic'lar piece of silver?"

The boy glances down, as though he could see through the deck to his own little sea-chest below. 

"No sir, he never mentioned it," he lies. The man chuckles amiably.

"Just as well, that is. That silver's a valuable thing, to some. If ever I had one, sure I'd keep it close to me heart." The gunner's mate stares into a distance a moment, then rises with a groan. "Take care, lad, and mind whose ears can hear ye. This'll be our secret, for sure." 

In the dark, his eye gleams with something very like hunger.

New Ship Adventure: The Shanties of Hell

Every whaling sailor longs for Fiddler's Green, a fabled place of green grass and fair weather and not a sail nor a plank nor a bit of salt water to be seen. Some of them make it there, bless 'em, but more of them don't. The unlucky ones end up crewing the whalers in hell, fighting leviathans that can swallow the sun. 

Your crew ended up in a hellish otherworld, not a true place of damnation but a bizarre and frightening no-place that few but sailors ever speak of. Perhaps your ship fell through a hole cut in reality by Porte magic, or perhaps you were sent there by the Devil Jonah or a vengeful dievas

You encountered strange creatures and bested other trapped crews there. Everywhere the air was filled with sad and haunting songs. The experience left you haunted, and the shanty melodies come into your mind unbidden each night. Your crew were fortunate, though, and found one of the lost chests of the blessed silver that gives them shore leave to return to earth. 

Others would try to take your silver, if they can. Perhaps they don't know its true value. Perhaps they lost someone in Hell and are desperate to rescue them. Perhaps they have stranger motives yet. Best to keep it secret and secure, and speak of your adventures to no one.

Benefits: As long as they possess their piece of blessed silver, each Hero has the 3-point Advantage "Nerves of Steel." In addition, any character possessing a piece of the silver may spend a Hero Point and sing one of the Shanties of Hell. Soon after, they will learn the location of an entrance to hell. It may take several scenes, or even another session or two, to reach that entrance.

Drawback: Once per session, as needed, the GM may spend a Danger Point. Now, someone knows you have the silver. They may pursue you themselves, or pass that information along to other interested parties. From that moment on, your crew is hunted.


Mythos Magic is Not a Toy!

CHOO-CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 

After suspending the game since, say, March, my Horror on the Orient Express group is finally back up and running, online. It doesn't feel as luxurious to run this campaign online (via Roll20) compared to sitting together at the table, but the benefit is we're much less likely to die of a hideous virus. So I think I'm OK with the trade. 

Last night, the group reached Belgrade, and they learned a very important lesson about casting an untested spell...

So... in the "mini-prequel campaign" before we started Orient Express, I ran the group through a loose adaptation of Dead Light, Edge of Darkness and Dead Man Stomp. At the conclusion of that, they picked up a mythos tome from a would-be sorcerer. (Check out the "Zone Rouge" tag for a recap!)

The investigator who was most interested in magic decided to try to learn what spells he could find from the tome. I didn't want to give him anything huge and powerful so early in the campaign - especially because he was already holding on to the Dead Light box! -  so I gave him a disguised version of the Voorish Sign. I called it something like "A Cunninge Method for Obtaining Safe Passage From Thine Enemies." I told him nothing else about the spell or what it did. 

This was, in real time, about 18 months ago. 

------

Flash forward to last night. The investigators get to Belgrade, and have some extra time to explore the city before meeting their contact. They go to the bazaar, and - too good to be true! - spot something that might be the Right Arm of the Simulacrum. A burly, mustached Turk snatches it and starts running, and the investigators give chase. He leads them into a weird ambush down a crowded cul-de-sac, as six of his buddies step out of the crowd to fight the investigators. 

...At which point the investigator with the spell says "I'm in trouble here. I'm going to cast that spell for protection." Remember that he picked this spell up a year and a half ago. By this point I had long forgotten what spell I *actually* gave him. So I went for something spectacular. 

The spell summoned "the Lurker" from the attic of Edge of Darkness. With a wet, ripping, popping sound, a boiling cloud of faint turbulence and color appeared behind one of the menacing Turks. It grabbed him, dragged him backwards, and popped his spine out of his neck like someone de-veining a shrimp. 

Everybody roll SAN. Everybody roll DEX to avoid being trampled by the crowd. 

I was cackling with glee. I love this game.

Dov Velvel: It's Beowulf, in English & Yiddish

On a lark, a little bit of fun with fiction. Thanks to @JustSayXtian on Twitter for the prompt.

If you enjoy this little story, please give some tzedakah. I would really appreciate it if you'd give generously to this GoFundMe, to help care for the family of a dear friend who could use the help.

Otherwise, any other charity is fine. 


Thanks! Enjoy!


Nu, in the old country we heard

how in the goldene medina 

they had a king who was mamash a mensch.


Scef's boy, Scyld, no, not the doctor, the other one,

He was davka a real shtarker. Every day he went out

and showed the nishtgoodniks what's for.

Such nachas they had from him!

Later, Scyld had a boychik,

A little vilde chaya, 

Ribbono shel Olam sent him,

because He knew the tzuris they had.


They called him Beow

(But his Jewish name was Mendele)

And when he grew up he was a baal tzedaka

and everybody spent Shabbos by him.

Scyld lived to a hundred and zwanzig,

And then he passed, and the Men's Club sat shiva.

They did a meal like you wouldn't believe

Corned beef, knishes, the whole shmear.


Then Mendele took over the family business.

He was a mensch. His son Halfdane

Merited three boys and a girl.


The middle boy, Hrothgar

Had a good name

He did very well for himself

And decided to build a shul

He raised funds and built it

And called it after his friend Hirsch Tzvi

And it was packed all the time

Not just on the High Holy Days


But this too shall pass,

And did they have tzuris? 

Oy, like a bad machatunim,

You shouldn't know from it.

That mamzer, that dybbuk

Called Grendel-

Ptui ptui ptui-

Decided to stir the pot.

He hated their davening

And their simchas.


This cossack, this Grendel-

He should grow like an onion-

Had such a bad yichus

That nobody would go near him.


At night he came to the shul,

After Hrothgar had a big tisch,

And it has to be said, everybody

Was a little schluffy because

They all got shiker.


And Grendel - his name should be erased - 

He came in and wrecked up the place

And snatched up 30 men, carrying them away 

Like a gonif.

In the morning everybody saw what happened,

And Hrothgar cried "Gevalt!"

This he needed like a lokh in kop.


Twelve years this went on,

Until the Hrisch Tzvi shul

Was empty.

It became the shul

That nobody goes to.


One day, though, b'ezrat Hashem,

Somebody came to help.

Built like a golem, strong like an ox,

But a Yiddishe kop too. 


He sailed over with a minyan

Plus a few extra men just in case.

The gabbai stopped them at the door,

And asked them: "Nu?"


The man said, "We are talmidim of R' Hygelac,

And maybe you heard of my father, Ecgtheow?"

The gabbai said he knew them, 

Had seen them at a wedding once. 

He opened the shul for them, 

Then wished them Aleichem Sholom.


They found Hrothgar there, 

With a couple of guys from the Kiddush Club.

Such a shanda, that a mensch like this 

Should look like such a shlimazel.


Hrothgar said he remembered this man-

Dov Velvel, he was called - from when 

Ecgtheow married Hrethel's daughter.

Dov Velvel said he came

To give Grendel such a zetz

And then they kibbitzed

And had coffee and cake.


That night, Dov Velvel and his minyan

Laid down for schluff. 

They thought this would be the end for them.

But Dov Velvel was a real frum Yid,

And trusted in Ribbono shel Olam

To take care of him.


Then Grendel - 

His mother should only know sorrow of him! - 

Stole in like a fox among the chickens

And grabbed up a man

And gobbled him up

Like the first man to the chulent pot at the kiddush.


Then Dov Velvel jumped up from the bed

Where he had been pretending to sleep,

And he grabbed on to Grendel

With all the strength he had.


The two of them banged around the shul,

They knocked over the chairs, 

They wrecked the shtenders,

But Dov Velvel held on tight,

Stubborn, an akshen. 


Then, with a wail like a shofar,

Grendel - all of our problems

Should go on his head - 

Cried out, defeated, but

Dov Velvel hung on still, 

To teach him a lesson, 

And he tore off Grendel's arm. 


Grendel - may the leeches 

Drink him dry - 

Turned tail and ran back to the swamps

To die there, and to be judged by the One above.

And Dov Velvel was made President of the shul.

And to celebrate, they had such an oneg, 

That people still talk about it to this day.


But this, too, shall pass...




7th Sea is skipping a week - here's a little behind-the-scenes peek!

We didn't get to sail the 7 Seas this week...

It happens. We're all of us busy people, and so, so, tired, and trying to have a game on Friday nights is ever a perilous venture. But we will press on next week, perhaps on a different night, with better results I'm sure. 

In the meantime, here's what I've been doing for prep! 

I'm learning less is more when prepping for 7th Sea

I've got (depending on the week) 5 or 6 Heroes in this game, they each have their own Hero Stories to pursue, I have *my* GM Story to pursue, and... it's a lot. So I have prepped exactly, and only, the following, and anything else will need to be made up on the spot - which, fortunately, is easy to do in 7th Sea:

  • The identity of the Inquisitor they're likely going to meet
  • A description of the sailor's inn they're likely to visit when they reach Carleon (7th Sea's stand-in for London)
  • A couple of events and leads that will give some of the Heroes a way to start their Hero Stories
  • A description of the Explorer's Society Chapter House in Carleon that will kick off the GM story
Beyond that? Not much. In the background, now, I've been working out some ideas of what the central quest, the McGuffin, will look like. Without giving spoilers, I've planned out a grand, continent-crossing adventure that unites several of the themes the Players had indicated interest in: Syrneth artifacts, runes, treasure-hunting, and a sense of cooperation and teamwork. 

More to come!

Take to the Seas! Introducing a new crew to 7th Sea (2e)

Roust 'er up, bullies, the wind's drawin' free. 

Lets get the glad-rags on an' drive 'er to sea!


For the first time in a year or so, last night I led a crew of valiant Heroes into the 7th Sea!

These players are all new to the setting and the system, so I wanted to ease them into the game with something that felt like a tutorial: straightforward challenge, no wrong answers, and a chance for everyone to experiment a little.

We have 5 Heroes in the crew:

  • Grace Paige, a Sea Dog, and Captain of the group's ship
  • Kieva, a Castillian Prince and, secretly, an Eclipse - a Yachidi who hides in plain sight as a Vaticine, to avoid the attention of the Inquisition.
  • Siobhan de Amilla del Rio, an Inish/Castillian duelist and physician, and Kieva's bodyguard on this journey
  • Vilhemina Seljesdatter, a Vesten scholar and vala, seeking runes and Syrneth knowledge
  • Kaius de Bello, Vodacce rake, would-be duelist, and thorough-going drunk
As the session started, I had them describe why they were all on a ship to Avalon, and asked them to name the ship. They gave the honor to the Captain who dubbed it the Marian. The Captain let us know that her crew are all named Jones, but she was coy about whether that's what their mothers named them, or only what she calls them.

We jumped immediately into combat - they were being pursued by a Castillian pirate!

To make it easy, I gave them a Group Objective first - the Castillians were far enough away that the crew of the Marian could pull off a difficult sailing maneuver, swinging around to present their broadside to the oncoming pirates. 

They needed 10 Raises all together, and each of the 5 Heroes described how they were helping: the Captain wrestled the wheel with brute force (Brawn + Sailing), and other Heroes helped by running out sails (Finesse + Athletics), or helping calm the nerves of a nervous young crewman so he could better do his job (Panache + Empathy)

They also had 2 Consequences to buy off: Big Jonesie, one of the foremast riggers, lost his footing and his hold on a rope, and was about to fall to the deck! 

The heavy block Big Jonesie was hauling was falling right towards Vilhelmina, the vala! She managed to dart out of the way of those 2 Wounds, then Siobhan tossed a rope to the falling Big Jonesie, and working all together they bought themselves a chance to rake the pirates before the enemy could board. 

The players really loved this group objective. It was an easy, low-stress way to get to grips with three important game mechanics: choosing an Approach, making a Dice Pool, and counting up Raises. It also stressed the importance of working together as a team, something we'll revisit in the next session when we talk about spending Hero Points to help each other out. 

Next, I gave Captain Grace a moment in the spotlight. Because the crew had successfully brought off the complicated maneuver, she had a chance to direct the firing of the guns, or fire one herself, and eliminate some of the enemy boarding parties - brute squads - before they could get to her ship.

She used the Leadership advantage to get her crew in line - I ruled that this would give her 3 bonus dice, as though another Hero had spent a Hero Point on her - and she then used Panache + Warfare to give her crew deadly-accurate firing commands. She faced 2 consequences: there were sharpshooters in the rigging of the Castillian pirate vessel, so she risked taking 1 Wound from their fire, AND losing her beloved, be-feathered hat into the ocean!

She rolled 2 Raises, and elected to sacrifice herself - and her hat! - for the good of the crew. (This earned an HP due to the Sailor quirk). I made a note that she'll be mocked mercilessly for the loss of her hat when she gets to the Burning Gyre tavern in Carleon. The cannon fire knocked down 2 Brute Squads before they could board, meaning only 4 squads would remain.

Next Round, the ships kerrrrunched together, and 4 Brute Squads of 5 boarders each came aboard, swinging over, climbing up, or hacking their way across the sides. The crew of the Marian swung into action, and here Siobhan had her moment to shine. She whipped out an impressive TEN dice (thanks to her dueling maneuver), pulled five Raises out of it, and laid waste to an entire squad in a whirling vortex of steel and death.

Siobhan's player said this was her favorite moment of the session. Getting to take out this huge pile of dice, and seeing everyone else's jaw drop, was a big highlight! So a good principle is: if your Heroes have something they're particularly good at, try to clear a path for them to deploy it at least once a session. It's really gratifying!

Kieve used his Yachidi amulet magic to wade into a clump of pirates without taking any Wounds from them, Vilhelmina used subtlety and a keen eye to direct fighters around her without drawing a weapon herself, the Cap'n leapt down into the fray, and Kaius...?

Kaius hid! He was expecting a smooth and easy voyage, and took a few Wounds on his way to the safety of a crate. Fortunately, the other Heroes bailed him out.

We closed the session with Captain Grace spending a Raise to take an Opportunity: she caught a glimpse of a tall, gaunt figure on the Castillian ship, clad in Inquisitor robes...

Will the crew take the pirate ship - and the Inquisitor - captive? If so, we'll have a chance for some social/dramatic Risks.

It's going to be great! More to come!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Want more of what I do? I have a number of best-selling Adventures and GM guides for the 7th Sea system at this link, available via DriveThruRPG! If the link doesn't work right, go to drivethrurpg.com and search for me, "Evan Perlman."


Task Resolution! What to handwave, and when to roll dice in your TTRPG

Last month I participated in "RPG Theory July" on Twitter. Each day, the TTRPG community had the chance to mull over some aspect of creating and playing RPGs.

One of the prompts for discussion was "Task Resolution," which is something that, it turns out, I have some pretty strong feelings about. I am surprised, in fact, to find that I'm able to articulate a coherent philosophy!

Caveat: Of course this won't appeal to everyone, it won't work at every table, and it won't fit all games.

But - if you are looking for a cinematic feel to your game, you want to skip over fiddly details, or you're just looking to use your time at the table as efficiently as possible, I think this'll be useful to you. Let's take a look!


Task Resolution & Narrative Focus

This algorithm is going to help you decide:
  • Whether a task to be resolved deserves narrative focus, and
  • How you should resolve the task's uncertain outcome.
What does this mean? I'm using Task Resolution to mean any situation where something is going to happen in your role-playing game, and the outcome is not certain. A character wants to shoot a monster, seduce a noble, or learn a difficult incantation. A monster wants to bite someone or run away. A thunderstorm produces lightning which might strike a character.

An RPG character walking across a room is not a task to be resolved - in most cases, it just happens. An RPG character running across a room and dodging a hail of bullets while doing so? THAT's a task to be resolved.

For purposes of this post I'm assuming that the game you're playing uses a randomizer to resolve uncertain task outcomes (most games use a dice roll; some use cards, or a Jenga tower, or something else). If your game resolves everything through player actions/discussion, or in general doesn't use a randomizer, then the end of the algorithm doesn't apply. You can still use the first few boxes to decide which things deserve narrative focus, though!

I'm using Narrative Focus to mean anything that you spend time talking about in the context of your story. So an out-of-character discussion about the rules, or a recap of previous events in the game, do not count as receiving narrative focus. Describing what your character does, or role-playing it, or bringing out props, or rolling dice to see what happens - all of these are narrative focus.


1. Is it interesting?

If it's not interesting, don't even spend time on it! But - what makes a task interesting?
  1. It's important to a character. Your characters are the windows through which players (and GMs) experience the fictional world of the game. If a task doesn't matter to them, it's not going to matter to the player, and it doesn't merit any narrative focus. 
  2. It affects the character's goals. This is an extension of it being important. The task being resolved has to have a measurable impact on something the character is trying to achieve. Obviously this has a pretty wide range, anything from "I want to make myself happy" to "I want to help my friend find his family" to "I need to do this to stay true to my principles." But if it doesn't affect the goal the character is trying to achieve, then character has no clear motivation to do it, and it doesn't merit narrative focus.
  3. It matches the tone and genre of the story. Think about the genre of story you're playing in. What kinds of actions and tasks would be considered important in those genres? ANY task can be worthy of narrative focus if it's important and relevant to the character, but if it doesn't fit in the mood of the fiction you can handle it off-screen, or skip it. For example, consider the task "get lunch." If the character is hungry enough, this could certainly meet the first two requirements, but in most genres we would skip it. But if the character is a noir detective living paycheck to paycheck, or a punk on the fringes of society in a barter economy, the simple act of procuring a meal becomes interesting because of the challenges and themes associated with it. 
If it's interesting, it deserves some narrative focus. And keeping the idea of challenges and themes in mind, we go on to the next decision!  We're going to spend time on it, in-game. Now the question is: do we resolve it via role-play? Or do we use the randomizing/decision-making mechanics?

2. Is it hard to do?

If it's not hard to do, we don't have to have a conversation about how to resolve the task, right? If it's easy, you just... do it. For example:

Player: "I do this easy thing, e.g.: walk across the room; talk to a guard; buy a drink; look up the capital of Burkina Faso on Wikipedia..."
GM: "OK. Great. You do it."

Of course, "hard to do" is relative. You have to calibrate it to the setting, genre, and to what's going on in the game at that moment. Heck, you can calibrate it to the character themselves - if they have a lot of skill in a certain kind of task, they should be able to "just do" much more challenging things with it than an untrained person would. Some systems (like Gumshoe) build this in deliberately, where a character automatically succeeds in an action of baseline-level difficulty once they're trained up beyond a certain point. 

But a lot of the difficulty is in the context. If the character is impaired, hassled, running low on resources, rushed, or opposed, something that would otherwise be a walk in the park can suddenly become difficult - and thus, something that needs to be resolved mechanically. 

Please note: even if it's easy, it can still be worthy of narrative focus! The distinction - and decision - being made in step 2 is about whether we need to use a task-resolution mechanic to resolve it. If it's easy but interesting, resolve the task through role-play. Describe what the characters do and how they resolve their task. Enjoy the storytelling. Then move on to the next interesting thing worthy of narrative focus.

3. Is it risky?

If the task is hard, it means the outcome is uncertain: the character might fail! If a task is risky, that means something bad happens if the character fails.  Like everything else, bad is relative to the context of the game and the scene. 
  • If failure means that the character just has to try again, this is not risky. 
  • If failure means that the character has wasted some time, this is not risky.
    • UNLESS the character is running out of time! If they are being pursued, or if wasting time means they'll lose an important opportunity, then suddenly failure does have consequences.
If it's not risky, it may still be worth role-playing the outcome, but the player and GM can decide together whether the character succeeds or fails - and since we've stipulated in these cases that failure is not that interesting, the character should succeed most of the time, right? 

If the task's outcome is uncertain and there are important consequences to failure, it's time to use a task resolution mechanic: roll dice, draw cards, whatever. Success means the character has accomplished something hard to do, in service of their goals. Failure means something bad has happened, and their goal slips farther away. 



4. Bonus Question: Does the system support this style?

I noted above that this algorithm won't work perfectly with every game, and I want to highlight one particular game where that's the case. In Call of Cthulhu (7th and earlier editions), characters increase their skill by succeeding at skill rolls. Therefore, the players have an incentive to seek out opportunities to roll. It's then up to the Keeper (the GM) to provide opportunities to roll dice. 

Does this mean that Call of Cthulhu games should be filled with a lot of meaningless dice rolls? No! But it does mean the Keeper - and scenario writers - need to hustle a little bit harder to make sure that the game is full of meaningful, risky tasks that fit the Investigators' skills. It's a challenge to be sure, but it's rewarding, and if the risks are high enough it really starts to make the Investigators sweat - and their players, too.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Want more of what I do? I have a number of best-selling Adventures and GM guides for the 7th Sea system at this link, available via DriveThruRPG! If the link doesn't work right, go to drivethrurpg.com and search for me, "Evan Perlman."

Want to see how this algorithm can help spice up combat in your games? My Electrum Best-Selling GM guide "The Good Fight" talks specifically about creating a variety of interesting and meaningful consequences in 7th Sea combat. Never again will you have an endless slog against an improbably tough villain! Instead, players will get to enjoy the feeling of total and overwhelming panic as everything goes to hell all around them. Enjoy!

Fresh Madness!

Discworld: First Impressions of the Quickstart of the new Discworld TTRPG by Modiphius

What do I want from a Discworld TTRPG, anyway? I have read and loved the Discworld books for decades. This doesn't give me any particula...