Character March 2025: A Modest Life

Would you look at that, this is the final Character March 2025 article. It was a nice journey, and it caused my blog's number of blog posts to already soar beyond what I did in any previous year. 

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

A Modest Life

Zarah Millermann used to be a scout in her earlier days. Wandering the wilderness, navigating the group, watching over the party at night, all of this and so much more was all she used to do. But that was well over thirty years ago. At the moment, she's an old woman who lives in the Hiddenburg village, on a random road that's rarely even traveled anymore. Her form is a little hunched by now, her hair has lost its vibrant brown color a long time ago, now replaced with grays, and nowadays she works as a forager: looking for herbs and fruits in the forest still reminds her of the old adventuring days. The village appreciates it, especially the kids with whom she likes to share sweet forest berries.

Zarah is now 66 years old. Her stats are as follows:

• Tough 12
• Agile 16
• Wise 18
• Sharp 20

Her special abilities (a number of them equal to her age divided by 10, rounded down, so 6) are:

• Finder. If she asks the GM if there's a hidden item nearby, they'll reveal any that is.
• Lurker. She can be hidden if she does not move on her turn.
• Navigator. She can't get lost and always knows her way back home.
• Nightwatch. She can see well enough even in the pitch darkness.
• Sampler. She can tell through close examination if a food is harmful and how.
• Tracker. She can identify what the tracks mean and can't lose them after finding them.

Nowadays, Zarah brings forest's gifts and plenty of joy to the Hiddenburg village. But who knows how much longer this will last... her clock is ticking. Her body isn't what it used to be. And with every passing year, the chance that this was her last year grows. Who will replace her when she finally moves on to the other side?

Ratings

5/5 RPG. It might be a recency bias, but I think has a feeling different than just a procedure or a board game.

3/5 Soup Stone. I could imagine expanding on the game, but I think it does decent enough in this regard.

3/5 Would I Play. I'd like to see how this works in practice, but I'm not particularly driven to pick this system over others, at least not for now.

2/5 Would I Write. If I see a meaningful way to grow these rules, sure! I didn't publish it on itch.io yet because I think it still needs a little something, illustrations especially, but I'm not counting that into the rating because I'm just busy at the moment.

13/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: It's About Time

This one was made by a buddy of mine for a convention as a short game to hand out to people present to learn playing TTRPGs. It spans two pages, and it's largely based on Lasers and Feelings. I helped him by pitching ideas, playtesting the game with him, and offering guidance here and there, so since I ran out of games where I could have a character, I'm gonna count it.

A small note before I continue: The game was originally written in Slovak, and there isn't an English-translated version yet (at least not one I'm aware of), so I'll just be translating stuff I use to English for this article.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

It's About Time

Bella Minds is a cyborg psychologist. Half of her body is machine; the other half is an average-looking human with black hair and a piercing gaze. In the time that's present to her, she usually walks around in a white lab coat because of the subtle psychological effect of authority it has on people. Her pick of time travel ability is Echo, which allows her to create a copy of herself (probably by bringing one from the future) for one minute. As all other time travelers in this game, she comes equipped with some futuristic equipment befitting a psychologist, such as a tablet with every single Rorschach inkblot, the latest edition of the DSM, a hefty bottle of placebo pills, and so on. As for her personal goal, she wants to uncover something secret whenever she travels to the past.

Ratings

5/5 RPG. Plays like an RPG, I'd have a hard time treating this as a board game.

3/5 Soup Stone. Plenty of ideas are pitched by the game, so that's pretty good.

2/5 Would I Play. Perhaps when I have an incomplete group, or when a bunch of new players wants to try out some wacky time travel stuff.

1/5 Would I Write. Only if I had ideas on how to meaningfully expand on it myself, and I don't have any right now.

11/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: There Is No Tomorrow

... the time has come for the loop. And in the loop, the time has come for the loop. And in the loop, ...

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

There Is No Tomorrow

Felipe Contreras is an average surgeon. He's a little impatient when tending to things outside of his work, but he's also very much a people person. This contrasts the big city he lives in, where the people barely care about one another as they walk the streets. Still, he's got a few close friends that he meets now and then, like his drinking buddies, his girlfriend, and some of his family members who haven't moved out yet. His attributes are as follows:

• Strength +1
• Endurance +2
• Agility +3
• Talent +5
• Knowledge +4
• Intuition +0

Ratings

5/5 RPG. It can't really be played another way.

3/5 Soup Stone. While it leaves a lot of details blank due to its Mosaic Strict format, I think it still has a decent amount of details and time loop tropes to earn a 3.

4/5 Would I Play. I like a good time loop.

1/5 Would I Write. It feels complete to me. If I come up with a meaningful way to expand on it, I will.

13/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Match Two

Uber short!

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Match Two

Annie Loveheart is determined to make the couple fall in love with her trusty Beauty Mask.

Ratings

4/5 RPG. Plenty of space to improvise.

1/5 Soup Stone. Very little detail to work with.

2/5 Would I Play. With the right group of people, maybe.

1/5 Would I Write. Only if I were to start over.

8/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: MARSsacre

Should I use the same tone in this article? ... nah, let's not.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

MARSsacre

Chell Shotgun is a femme fatale in the manly culture of the Slayers. She's no stranger to being violent though, since she's got her hands on both an Atomizer, and a Jackhammer. Her Humanity starts at 5, and I can't give further details on her until her first mission, so that's all!

Ratings

2/5 RPG. Most of it is shooty stuff, though some roleplaying is encouraged to regain your humanity.

4/5 Soup Stone. Thematically strong, I think it's okay to rate this at a 4.

3/5 Would I Play. Maybe one day. It's low on my priorities list, but it sounds kind of neat.

2/5 Would I Write. Kind of? Depends on what I'd expand it with.

11/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Descent of the Holy

Let's make a priest.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Descent of the Holy

Father Maksymilian is a dwarven priest who's helping out the community of the Good City. Whether it's helping with the problems of people on the surface, or delving underground to fight off the vicious skeletal forces, he's always on the ready, and quick with a joke. His Faith begins at 1, as it does for all the characters. When delving into the crypt below, his carried equipment of choice is Aspergillum for when it's needed, and a Relic since one of the priests has to bring it. The first prayer he learns from the options listed in the game is Douse the Multitude, a prayer that allows him to regain 1 Aspergillum use after two uses. His stats are as follows:

• Fairness 1d6
• Altruism 1d16
• Courage 1d8
• Temperance 1d10
• Sin 1d4

Ratings

3/5 RPG. I think there's space for stuff that would make it different from a board game.

4/5 Soup Stone. Plenty is already there to work with.

3/5 Would I Play. Maybe one day if I feel like it. Maybe a oneshot? Who knows.

3/5 Would I Write. If I get some ideas for improvements, I could see myself updating this. Until then, this will have to wait patiently for its turn.

13/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Your Royal Slyness

This one will hurt me since it's probably the published product I disliked the most out of my itch.io products yet. If I remove games from there, this one might go first.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Your Royal Slyness

Drew Ace of Clubs and a King of Spades. I guess I'm the Monarch.

King Patriclus XII is the head monarch of the Wornall Kingdom. He starts the game off with 4 Secrets and 4 Rumors, and his secret motive is to Silence (or perhaps Kill) a Foreign Monarch, perhaps the ruler of a neighboring kingdom.

Now then, let's create some secrets and rumors!

• Secret: His men stole a valuable treasure from the neighboring kingdom.
• Secret: He seduced one of his servants several times.
• Secret: He ordered his men to smear the other king in his own kingdom.
• Secret: The actual Patriclus XII is dead, this is Hyacinthus impersonating his older brother.
• Rumor: He cheated on his wife.
• Rumor: He poisoned his wife several times.
• Rumor: He poisoned the king of the neighboring kingdom.
• Rumor: He dabbles in witchcraft with a secret coven of his maid-witches.

Ratings

1/5 RPG. You could put roleplaying in there. But it feels like a board game through and through.

1/5 Soup Stone. I feel like it doesn't give you nearly enough to work with, though I might be biased.

0/5 Would I Play. I don't think so. I literally don't even feel like reading it.

0/5 Would I Write. Only if I completely overhauled the game.

2/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: The Hungering End

This is the last of my systems that I posted on the blog. From now on, I'll need to go through the games I've posted on my itch.io. Once I run out of those, ... who knows?

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

The Hungering End

Lord Charles Nevermoor is the head of the noble family. He's a stern man who knows what this is about: the world is slowly ending. Whether he'll manage to get his family to behave and save the world from The Hungering End is something nobody can tell for sure.

His resource is Will, which he can spend to draw extra cards during the challenges. Furthermore, all his cards drawn get a +3 bonus to them. Both of these are relevant only within a challenge. I don't feel like going into details on what that specifically means, truth to be told.

Ratings

1/5 RPG. When the challenge begins, it turns into a board game. Outside of a challenge, it's pretty much nothing.

2/5 Soup Stone. There's some inspiration as to how it could work, but the core of the game is still up to the GM and the group to make up.

0/5 Would I Play. I don't feel like it anymore...

0/5 Would I Write. I feel nothing for its setting, and I'd much rather take what works about this game into something completely new.

3/20 Total Rating

A Modest Life, RPG of retired adventurers

I've been sitting on this one for weeks at this point. Might as well just publish it so I can make a character for it tomorrow.

A Modest Life

"We've done our part in saving the world. It's time for us to rest, and let the younger ones save it next."
Windless Valley, by Kui Lee

Design Notes

This project started when I realized I wouldn't have enough characters for the Character March 2025. Instead of opting for more games I merely helped with writing or reaching for games I didn't even work on at all, I decided on the foolish idea of making a game just so I could make a character for it and compare it among my other games. When I sat down to work on it though, I quickly realized... I don't have any ideas. I asked Kate for some ideas, and she told me she'd like a game about a bunch of retired adventurers, now taking care of a village, resolving simple problems there.

I figured out the boundaries of what I wanted to do and set out to work. For example, early on, I pondered whether magic has a place here, and I didn't make anything magical, nor fantasy humanoids, such as elves, orcs, or dwarves. It's all down to earth, so grounded it's medieval fantasy. The only fantastical elements are the adventurers' competence and the four mythical creatures in the events table.

Players are defined by their age, which defines the sum of their stats (ranging from 1 to 20 each). Whenever they use a stat, they roll 1d20 and try to roll less than the stat.  I went with quick and easy stats, and stat resolution, and tried to keep things minimal overall. This even reached into the combat system, which boils down to "everyone wears down the animal, and then someone tries to slay it with one fell swoop" instead of your typical "let's treat it like a pinata" situation from many other fantasy TTRPGs.

The abilities the player characters get are mostly meant to represent things they'd do as adventurers. I tried to make as many of them as I could useful in general day-to-day stuff too, though here and there I had to resort to doing less. At the moment, I feel pretty good about them.

When it comes to managing the village, there are two main things the players are to aim for: expanding the village by gaining the resource cards through work and protecting the village from animals and mythological creatures by fighting and forgoing the work. The table of events also includes natural dangers that the player might try to resolve, as well as some peaceful events.

Included is a small procedure for working, some medieval buildings, ... and it's a game I suppose. Is it in a perfect state? Not sure. Am I going to publish it on itch.io? Almost certainly, but I doubt I'll get around to that until the end of March. I have some surprises to work on before that.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I'd like to wish you all a lovely day!

Character March 2025: Gelt and Sand

Another short system is coming right up. I'll aim to make this one short.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Gelt and Sand

Voltaire Sunside is a member of the Philosopher cast within the society he lives in. Ever since his youth, he had visions of the past, the future, and even the present that he couldn't witness, so his merchant parents got him the best education they could afford. Now it's paying off, since he's one of the many advisors to the colony's ruler. His statistics go as follows:

• Strength +0
• Senses +2
• Smarts +1
• Socializing +0

He's kind of awkward when hanging out in groups, and he's far from a strong man, but his honed perception and intelligence make up for it greatly in the job he has.

Ratings

4/5 RPG. I guess it doesn't feel like a board game, so that's nice.

2/5 Soup Stone. At least it gives you a setting and some things to work off of. If I gave Rolling with It a rating of 2, this one gets a rating of 2 too.

1/5 Would I Play. I haven't watched Dune, so I'm not too invested in this style of game.

0/5 Would I Write. No real interest at the moment. For now it's a thought cabinet material, waiting for its chance to shine.

7/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: These Bloody Cells

This system technically features a character, so why not?

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

These Bloody Cells

Jacque "Sixer" Anderson is a vampire who has been imprisoned for over fifty years. He used to be a crime lord thanks to his charm, but nowadays, the criminal underworld has forgotten him, only considering him an urban myth, a rumor. He's determined to escape now, with some help from the other vampire buddies he made in the prison.

Bite is one of his powers, but another one is Charm and Sneak. His wardens are aware of these, but he's causing them a lot of trouble with these, regardless. His starting Blood pool is 11, though he only contributed 2 points to the Plan pool.

Ratings

4/5 RPG. I think this one could be fun, and it doesn't follow a strict board game structure.

4/5 Soup Stone. I'd say the game gives plenty of inspiration. It's far from perfect, but it's better at this than most of my games.

2/5 Would I Play. Sounds kind of fun in retrospect. I'm not absolutely keen on it, but maybe one day I could give it a go.

2/5 Would I Write. If I have good ideas for it, I could see myself do it.

12/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Arena of Popularity but no Death nor Magic

I didn't publish it on my blog because it felt rather lame in retrospect, but I might as well bring it up now. It's not balanced, it's kind of strange, and it has a comically long name. But it is how I started this whole thing.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Arena of Popularity but no Death nor Magic

The Howler is a wolf-themed warrior. Yes, he bites. Since the rules require a silly 20-word long backstory (thanks, One Punch Man), here it is:

Raised by deer. Ate them. Raised by wolves. Bit them. Raised by humans. Scorned them. Raised himself. Achieved great success.

He starts with 0 Popularity, which is a shock with a backstory this amazing, and his stats are as follows:

• Head 5
• Main Hand 0
• Off Hand 0
• Body 4
• Legs 1

No weapons, no special equipment. Just a wolf mask and sharp teeth.

Ratings

1/5 RPG. Most of it is combat. I don't even know if there's stuff that one could do in between other than manage their popularity and roleplay with no consequence. Unless you'd soup stone it. Speaking of...

1/5 Soup Stone. Again, you get to battle, but not much else, as written.

0/5 Would I Play. No.

0/5 Would I Write. I'd rather start over.

2/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Final: Sole Survivor

Guess I'm killing it with these short articles, huh?

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Final: Sole Survivor

Liam Parker is a local university student and a musclehead too, about to do whatever the group is doing on this oneshot. He's always been a pretty Strong guy, giving him 3 Health instead of 2. His three skills are Hurl, Muscle, and Run. When it comes to his four items, he brought with him his smartphone, his pocket knife that's more for showing than using, a dumbbell, and a pair of shades despite it being evening. He's out to have some fun, chillax with his friends, and show off.

Ratings

5/5 RPG. Checks out.

4/5 Soup Stone. Pretty good selection.

5/5 Would I Play. Absolutely!

2/5 Would I Write. Only if I see good ways to improve it. And I want to see how I could improve it.

16/20 Total Rating

The "Keep on Rolling" Engine

Recently I had an interesting conversation with Cubelith and Izzy, in which I learned about the One Roll Engine. Interesting how they were able to fit both efficiency and speed into one roll. We came up with an alternative, and while they didn't agree to this name, I had to name the article somehow. This is the Keep on Rolling Engine, or KoRE.

Keep on Rolling Engine

Start with stats that have dice assigned to them. Whenever you do something, start by being told which stat you use. Then, you get to decide how many dice you roll. After rolling them, you sum them up to see how effective you are.

If someone wants to counter your action by being faster, they must roll fewer dice than you (or equal if you rolled just one die), and roll a higher sum than yours.

If you are in an intense action sequence, such as a combat or a chase, you might be limited to only having some amount of dice per round. This could pair pretty well with the Opposed Roll Combat System.

Outside of intense action scenes, the players might be able to keep on adding the dice to their rolls until they roll over some difficulty set by the GM. If we want this to matter, there could also be some kind of time limit - the GM could be counting how many dice have been used, and that way keep track of what time it is right now.

What mechanics could we use to make it more than just a dice resolution? Picture the ones listed below being incorporated into various abilities and traits in the game itself.

• Some players could have features that set a minimum rolled value to something (2, 3, or 4, since those are on all standard dice).
• Adding different dice types into the pool.
• Replacing dice with other dice in the pool.
• Static bonuses to a roll (pretty powerful stuff at lower rolls).
• Multiplying select dice rolls? (How could you tell I played Balatro recently?)
• Forgoing a die with a set minimum roll for some specific additional effect.
• Assigning the dice values after the rest of the pool is rolled (Wiggle Dice in O.R.E.).

I'm pretty sure I could keep going, but this is just to record the idea on my blog. Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Character March 2025: Everyone Slays the Princess

One of my shortest games. Lightning round!

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Everyone Slays the Princess

Magician. The archetype of someone creative and a thinker. Trying to work out what this place is, who is the Princess, and who is the Hero... What more is there to say?

Ratings

5/5 RPG. Doesn't feel like a board game at all.

2/5 Soup Stone. The premise and some guidelines are there, but largely, it is what you make of it. Not as much as some of my other games, though.

5/5 Would I Play. Short and sweet. Once I figure out more ways to end it, I'd love to play it with groups of new players.

1/5 Would I Write. I consider it finished and complete. If I see something that should be added, I might return to it.

13/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Runehack RPG

A day special to me for private reasons should be dedicated to making a character of my own for the Runehack RPG. Publishing it was one of my resolutions for 2024, and I did it. At times, I had my doubts, considering publishing just two pillars, then just one, but eventually, the structure came to me. And when the muse kicked me and I started writing, I barely stopped for several months.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Runehack RPG

Fitzen Rainstone is a confident goblin who is a professional hoverboarder, participating in competitions to see whose tricks are the best. What might surprise most is that he enjoys writing and storytelling just as much as hoverboarding. What he lacks in strength and smarts, he makes up for with his handiness. He's 30 years old, so he's well aware that his career might be over soon. That's why he's raising a student of his to be just as good at skating as he is, an orc who's got a lot of potential. He hates his human manager since both of them are quite stubborn, and he's got a goblin love interest who's present every time he competes. Things changed when some influential yet hidden people contacted him, asking whether he'd want to join the Acumen. For a personal reason that's a secret to most, he agreed.

Since he's a goblin, his body has adaptive physiology that allows him to shift slightly and become just what he needs in roughly one week, provided he'll adjust his diet for it. Usually, he's an oak goblin, but if it's necessary, he's willing to switch things up. His attributes are as follows:

• Muscle 0
• Agility 2
• Training 3
• Cognition 0
• Hunch 2

His starting Burden is 1, allowing him to carry a single item without being slowed down. He could carry two items concealed on his body in such a way that others couldn't find them. His Masteries are hoverboards, rubber, and wood. He has 2 Guesses that he could spend to find out what's true without evidence. His Max. Energy starts at 10, his default targeting senses are Smell (while he's an oak goblin) and Sight (which is normal to all player characters), he starts with 300 credits and some basic possessions as listed in the rules, as well as a Penthouse. His feature choices for the pillars are as follows:

• Social: Fame is a feature that would give him a starting relationship of +2 with his fans and -2 with his haters, plus they'd know some basic facts about the famous skater. Furthermore, he'd take the Healing Factor feature unique to the goblins that allows him to heal from Wounds faster, literally within a matter of a day. His final feature of choice is a Secret, which increases one of his attributes by 1 (Hunch), but now there's a dark truth about him that very few know: he owes someone awful a great debt. And they are keeping an eye on him, waiting for the prime opportunity.
• Spy: In the Acumen, he found himself at home in the role of a Tinker. With his runecard's apps, he can use some telekinesis to create obstacles in unobstructed routes, and the ability to fall without getting injured (also through telekinesis). The obstacles he's mastered so far are Around and Over, since those felt to him as a hoverboarder quite natural. Being in the Acumen also gives him a Mask that he can wear to cover up his identity, and his runecard informs him whether there's any runetech present in his area, save for the runecard itself. (Note to self: that last part is what I realized just now I should fix in the rules.)
• Tech: When it comes to the more technical side of his secret life, his runecard can't be identified unless he allows it, and he can activate or deactivate runetech devices that are within his line of sight, provided he succeeds on a roll for them. His role is Modder, which allows him to jury rig devices, attaching and detaching components even outside of the Assembly Activity. As a modder, he can also purchase a special component called Hotswap Slot, allowing anyone to attach components to it outside of the Assembly Activity safely.
• Job: Seeker is the perfect job for a public performer such as a pro hoverboarder. His features of choice would be a Costly Talent (which doubles credits earned and lost during a Performance and from the Flourishes), and One More Try (allowing him to take a Perform action once freely if he succeeded on less than two rolls made as part of a Perform or Flourish action in a round).

Ratings

5/5 RPG. The procedures might seem board game-y, but I think overall it feels like a roleplaying game.

4/5 Soup Stone. There's still stuff to improve about it, like adding more Conspiracies and adding more and more options to the game, but I think it's already in a solid place.

5/5 Would I Play. Yes. I'd love to have a local group to play it with, but until then, I'll have to play with an online friend or two.

5/5 Would I Write. I want to add so much more to this game. I just keep getting sidetracked with other projects. I think that's actually a good thing, though! It gives me more space to relax from thinking about writing this game and also more time to try it out myself so I know if there's anything that needs to be changed.

19/20 Total Rating

If I had Disco Elysium skills

For a couple months now, I've been thinking about Disco Elysium's skills, especially Volta do Mar. ... What's that? That's not a skill in the game? It actually is, it's just not a skill that your character has. By visiting the Disco Elysium's merch store, you can find out that Kim's iconic orange bomber jacket gives him a +1 bonus to Hand-Eye Coordination, as well as to... Volta do Mar. It turns out people don't have identical skills in the world of Disco Elysium. That makes sense if you think about it some more: only policemen would have Esprit de Corps (at least the way it is defined for Harry), and who knows if skills like Shivers and Inland Empire are not specific to Harry.

That being said, I've had this thought I pondered for a long time: what would my skills be, if I were in a disco-like game? After a lot of introspection, I grabbed a digital paintbrush and gave it my best shot. This article is about how I did this. I hope you'll enjoy my little bit of self-indulgence!

Categories

Through a lot of thinking, I narrowed the number of traits I'd consider iconic to myself down to 12, which is a good number to go with - divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6, which make for nice rectangles. I chose to split them into 4 groups of 3 to make it as close to a square as I could (without using custom canvas sizes or something like that). The names are a little forced so that each one starts with an S, but I've gotten used to them by now.

• Smart (blue) skills are related to intelligence and memory.
• Sparked (green + magenta details) skills are all about creativity and making stuff up.
• Social (yellow) skills are about the relations with other people.
• Somatic (red + white details) skills are about the body.

Resolution

I give myself goals, lots of them at times. Just to illustrate what I've been going through this past week: I set up the articles for the Character March to be automatically published, I've worked on the game for the final day of Character March, I painted all of the portraits you see above, attended a local club meeting, made some new friends, and sorted out a bunch of hangouts where I'll be spending time with my friends towards the end of the March. Add on top of that keeping up daily drawings (ever since the start of this year), and keeping up my DuoLingo streak. I don't like to give myself goals I know I can't finish. But maxing out this skill means you'll be stubbornly doing things even if you don't enjoy them, risking burnout. Taking breaks is okay, I should probably consider that.

Portrait: A head with a subtle clock face chained to all the commitments it has. I like to think each chain is attached to some time.

Rationalization

Explaining things, deducing logical answers, and analyzing solutions to problems. This is the skill that needs answers to issues, and it also needs to express them clearly. But maxing it out leads to frequent thought loops, and getting distracted with interesting ideas.

Portrait: A head filled with a clockwork mechanism. I like to think that it's about constructing the "arguments" in the form of exclamation marks coming out of the mouth by delivering a ball and cutting off the line at the top.

Ereyesterday

Memories, nostalgia, the past. Those who do not learn from history are bound to keep repeating it. However, maxing this skill leads to overt romanticization of the past and dwelling on what was instead of focusing on what is and what will be.

Portrait: A skull getting filled like an hourglass.

Myth Engine

We all have stories to tell, including myself. Sharing stories comes naturally to us. I wanted to learn how to tell and write stories better for a while now, so I've seen patterns in them. Maxing this skill out leads to lengthy one-sided "conversations" (on which side depends on the mood), and possibly also the main character syndrome.

Portrait: A heart with some mechanical parts added to it. Fun fact, since I wanted to imply it's about stories without being too obvious, I started by drawing a circle in the background that gets thicker in a clockwise direction until the top point, representing the Hero's Journey. The heartbeat line is actually the boundary between the Known and the Unknown, repurposed to be a heartbeat because I depicted the Myth Engine as a heart.

Wandering Mind

There's a multitude of options and possibilities to explore during a brainstorming process. Some might be good, but some might not be that good. Maxing the skill leads to frequent daydreaming, possibly running a risk of creativity that an audience will have a hard time relating to.

Portrait: A neuron can look surprisingly similar to a mind map, doesn't it? In that picture, I literally let my mind wander to try to come up with as many doors as possible. I started with literal ones and ended up with metaphorical ones - an axe can open any door, a sword can open someone's doorway to the afterlife, and a contract signed can lead to a new opportunity. And each door needs its handle, which I tried to represent with a dash of magenta.

Overmorrow

The capacity to plan for the future, and to keep track of the plans. Maxing out the Overmorrow could lead to overplanning, leaving very little time for self-care.

Portrait: A hand with a dashed line that brings along the latest plan, depicted as a compass with a needle pointing somewhere. As for what that thing above is, I'll let you guess. Hint: You might need something beyond the image to figure it out. Thank my Overmorrow for that.

Two-Way Mirror

Some people lack a filter. I don't. The Two-Way Mirror is exactly that, a boundary between the public and the private persona. Maxing it out leads to overt suspicion of others, secretiveness, and two-facedness.

Portrait: I started with the idea of splitting the image into two halves, just the way a two-way mirror would work: one half has to be brightly lit, and the other must be as dark as possible. Those on the bright side won't see what's on the dark side. After doing this, I drew the silhouettes - the bright side has a silhouette that speaks, and the dark side has a silhouette that watches in silence. I especially like how the bright side's silhouette blends, literally merging, with the dark side. Probably one of my favorite skill paintings.

Extra Mile

Helping others takes effort, even if it is a little. This is one's capacity to be kind to others. But maxing it out leads to taking on too much burden for others.

Portrait: A figure walking on a road up a mountain. They carry a burden of everything others need help with. A nice detail, in my opinion at least, is the fact the route leads around the mountain instead of directly up to the goal, meaning the character is literally walking a longer distance than what is necessary.

Tuning Fork

Figuring out the vibe and emotions of others. It's named after a tuning fork because tuning forks will start to vibrate on their own in reaction to sound waves that correspond to the tone they are tuned with. Maxing it out leads to overanalyzing what others are feeling, and these emotions potentially have an influence too. Honestly, not too sure if this is right, but I'm gonna go with that for this article.

Portrait: This one started as a head with tuning forks for ears, but that looked kind of lame. I tried to turn the forks upwards, but it still didn't look quite right. It looked good only once I drew more and more tuning forks, to make it look like antlers. There are subtle soundwaves in the picture too.

Perseverance

The capability to keep going despite everything. Honestly, not sure what more to say here that isn't too personal. Maximizing it leads to stubbornness, I think? Not too sure.

Portrait: A body in a defensive posture, with bones highlighted to increase the feeling of endurance in the picture. The flame in the chest represents the will that keeps the body going. That flame might be the reason why I'm still here today to write this.

Kinesis

Sheer physical strength. Not really maxed out for me, but I figured I should include a strength of some kind in this skill list. I'm guessing maxing it out would lead one to violent solutions.

Portrait: A figure that punches the glass up above, while pulling on some ropes.

Vigilance

Carefulness and finesse, watchfulness, and attention to detail. Honestly, I'm not sure how good I am with this skill, just like Kinesis it was added because I felt like it was necessary. Maxing it out could lead to tunnel vision and overt carefulness.

Portrait: Seven eyes watching a pair of hands doing some kind of delicate task. I'm not sure why I went with seven, layout-wise it just worked out this way. One eye is on the lookout, one eye looks back at the viewer, one eye is closed because (insert more poetic reason than "I was too lazy to draw another eye), and the rest is looking at the hands. Each eye has a laser to represent laser focus, but also a kind of tunnel vision.

Final Words

Was this a cool way to spend some amount of my time this past week? Yes. Do I know what I want to use these skills for yet? No, but I might work that out in time. Could I do a better job if I spent way more time on this? Likely! For now, this is enough. Until then, I'll just get to enjoy the fact that I finished another Thing. Yes, I'm counting this as a Thing, those portraits are not commissioned by someone else or something like that. I've surprised myself with how these turned out, considering I didn't do art this seriously before.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Character March 2025: Runehack: Fairy Heist

Ironically, the game about the small beings is one of my bigger games.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Runehack: Fairy Heist

Naxandria Ashenrich is a regular fairy who lives in the Heart District of Ashington, not too far from Long Meridian Street. She doesn't have a nickname that would stick to her just yet because she has yet to make a group of good friends. She's a mix of an Oceanic and a Mountain fairy, since her skin is dark green, yet her eyes are red. During the day, she's a regular merchant's assistant on the Long Meridian, though she wants a life full of fame and thrills since her life is quite boring. The person who matters to her the most is her older sister Roxicity, who's running a small music band with great hopes of one day making it to Cape Nota. Naxandria supports Roxicity's dreams, though she's concerned about what would happen once she's all alone.

Her life was turned upside down when she got an anonymous message on her runecard, inviting her to a secret meeting. On the location where she was called, she met several other fairies, all called forth by the anonymous stranger, who left them a set of new, nulled runecards. They get to live a double life, stealing all sorts of medical experiments from the Lifestock and getting paid well for delivering them to the anonymous stranger. The fairies, bored with life and looking for some excitement, agreed to this offer.

Naxandria starts with 10 credits; her height is 13 centimeters, which is above average for a fairy. The nulled runecard in her possession comes with two installed apps: Telepathy (that allows her to speak 10 words audible to only one person she can see) and Grasper (moving things around telekinetically, as if held by a human hand). Her height also defines that she's stronger than an average fairy and can carry quite a bit of weight (a total of 13), but she's less agile than most fairies. She does not realize that her sister is staying in Ashington because of her. Naxandria believes she's not holding her back, but subconsciously, she is, until she tells her sister directly that she can go to Cape Nota.

Ratings

5/5 RPG. I've played it for several months. Among my games, this one probably feels the most like a proper tabletop roleplaying game.

4/5 Soup Stone. Plenty to work off of, little stuff that needed to be added.

4/5 Would I Play. I'd rather play Runehack RPG, but I think I could do a game of Fairy Heist now and then if I were to give it an update.

4/5 Would I Write. I want to use the Runehack RPG like an "engine" of the game and remake this one day to be compatible with it. Fairy Heist is like its parent; it's deserved for doing so much hard work for what the Runehack RPG is today.

17/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Runehack: Express Deliveries

Funny thing about this one is, I struggled with formulating satisfying vehicle mechanics for months. But when the game jam started and the theme was "transport", I knew I had to give it a try. In the end, I am very satisfied with how it turned out. Driving in this game really feels different from having your character walk.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Runehack: Express Deliveries

Mr. Whiteflame is a dwarf who does deliveries around the city of New Prista on his hovercar. He's a silver dwarf with pale gray skin and gray hair due to his age, and he's usually seen in a casual outfit that would be seen as an equivalent of a Hawaiian shirt. He's a pragmatic person who's seen it all, so it's hard to make him excited. He just wants to live an average life and blend in with the crowd until his final day comes. In his digital wallet, he's got 100 credits, and his specialization is that of a Courier, which means he can deliver items faster than other drivers would under the same circumstances.

Ratings

3/5 RPG. It's a driving minigame for the most part, but there's some potential for roleplay, especially while not working or while driving a customer or more.

3/5 Soup Stone. Lots of stuff is defined, and lots is left for the player to decide.

3/5 Would I Play. Maybe, but it's hard to tell. Giving this one a 3 because I'd still be more okay with playing this than some of my other systems.

2/5 Would I Write. I already expanded on this in the Runehack RPG greatly, so I don't feel like it's necessary unless I want to make this a thing on its own.

11/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Runehack: The Asterist

Let's delve into the Runehack games and see how they're going to hold up!

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Runehack: The Asterist

Octica Ironwell is a human from Moorwell who could afford her own digital immortalization. Before that, she used to work as a dentist, with a regular job and a regular family. Once her mind was scanned and uploaded to Everling, she nicknamed herself 8ECT. There, she could finally have a chance to try new things as much as her heart desired. See all the movies, read all the books, listen to all the music. For now, there are still many experiences ahead of her, but one day, she'll have to stop and ask herself the hard question: "Does this life fulfill me?" If she's given a choice to break out of Everling, her response will be yes only once she really considers the question.

One of the things she got to experience is Asterism, hacking the world around her. At the moment, she doesn't use it often, but perhaps when there's a group of other players around her, she might just start to. Her starting Integrity is 4 (I suppose she was into some strange things), and her Corruption starts at a 0.

I don't feel like writing up the full structure of how she'd spend her points, so instead, I'll describe which stats she'd prioritize:

• Stability is at the top since she wants to experience a lot of things, sometimes things dangerous to her simulated self.
• Speed, so that she doesn't miss out on anything.
• Visual, so that others can see her well even when she's silent (she'd always put at least one point here).
• Audio, so she can be heard well by others.
• Runecraft, because you never know when you'll need a bit of Asterism.
• Strength, Auxiliary, Cravenlore, Mindlore, Witlore, and Worldken, only if they are relevant to the experience she's currently going for.

She'd probably also try to keep some points in her Reserve in any situation, just in case.

Ratings

5/5 RPG. It has the freeform nature of a roleplaying game to me.

4/5 Soup Stone. You'll need to make up some stuff, but I think it's also giving you plenty to work with.

3/5 Would I Play. See, this is hard for me because I already reworked the hacking minigame into the Runehack RPG. This game's unique selling point for now is that you get to play as a digital ghost in the city of Everling, but I don't know how much longer until I find a way to include those in the Runehack RPG.

3/5 Would I Write. I'm torn on this. If the question is, "Would I take the best aspects of this and include them in the Runehack RPG?", the answer is yes. If the question is "Would you update The Asterist?", the answer is no because the Runehack RPG is what I want to focus on a lot more.

15/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: D6 Feet Under (updated)

As promised, I'm working on updating the game. Not sure when it's going to be released, so consider this a tiny preview of what's ahead.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

D6 Feet Under (updated)

Felicity Long is a mortal born in the Badwell. There are three things she feels passionate about. One, amassing as much wealth as she can. Two... ehh, better not talk about two. And three, Saint Rue Brightguns. The woman who took everything from her. Her family, her reputation, and her wealth. Felicity is on her way to Saint Rue, but as an angel, she has a couple of underlings who will stand in her way.

Her two weapons of choice are a shovel and a revolver. The first feature Felicity will pick is Dodged the Bullet, which will allow her to regain 1 Luck if she rolls a 1 on all weapon dice and decides it's a miss. Her starting stats are Grit 3, Fit 5, Wit 4, and Merit 0.

Ratings

4/5 RPG. Done this way, it feels better than the original. There's 

4/5 Soup Stone. Hopefully, I'll have some guidelines for generating the towns and NPCs, but beyond that, there's just the right amount of mechanics for what the game is about.

4/5 Would I Play. Runehack RPG is a game I'd prefer to play, but I could see myself running this too if I had the energy and people for it.

5/5 Would I Write. I want to finish this and publish it on itch.io sometime this year.

17/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: D6 Feet Under

This one will hurt me, but only for a bit. Before I even knew about the Character March, I started working on this system's rework. It's still far from being finished. That being said, it's so radically different from its original version that I will do myself a favor and consider those two separate systems. That way, I'll have one less game to sort out for this monthly challenge.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

D6 Feet Under

Nate North is a good man, save for his gambling addiction. He's obsessed with Success, and gambling is an easy way to prove he can succeed. He wanders the world trying to find Pearl South, the one woman who defeated him in a game of chance every single time, got the local community to mock him, and can't stop bragging about it. His starting Luck is 2, and his weapons of choice are a revolver, a shotgun, and a knife. His stats are:

• Grit 5
• Fit 3
• Wit 2

Finally, his lucky item is a horseshoe that he got from his grandpa. This increases his Luck to 3.

Ratings

4/5 RPG. It doesn't feel like a board game to me, at least for the most part. Some aspects of it feel like it, but I think there's plenty of space for roleplaying.

2/5 Soup Stone. Some things you'll have to work out on your own, but you do get some inspiration for it.

0/5 Would I Play. It's too clunky, I'd rather not. I mean, the stats get better the lower they are, which goes counter to most game conventions. You're sometimes asked to roll up to 6d6 and keep the lowest result, which is unnecessarily punishing. It was a good foundation though, so...

5/5 Would I Write. I am literally doing that in between these articles.

11/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Lethal Companions

Time to get spooky with my final 200-word game made as part of the 2023 monthly challenge!

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Lethal Companions

Hide-behind is a deadly monster and certainly not a rip-off of the brackern. Its specialty is being subtle and killing fast. Its skin has a dark shade so that it can hide in the darkness easily, and it has a mixture of canine and feline features. Its stats are as follows:

• Hide d20
• Sway d4
• Kill d12
• Track d8
• Resist d10
• Steal d6

Ratings

3/5 RPG. It has the potential to be something.

3/5 Soup Stone. Plenty of space to develop it, but I think it feels less soup stone-y than most of my other games. I guess because it allows you to generate your facility and gives you the stats that serve as prompts for formulating how your creature works.

2/5 Would I Play. Maybe once or twice for fun, if I had the time and the energy.

2/5 Would I Write. It's based on a franchise I don't own, so I'm not sure if I'd want to. If I did, it would be something with a similar premise but without referencing the video game.

10/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Rolling with It

I guess I could say I'm on a roll. I'm skipping Watch Your Time because it doesn't even have character creation rules.

On an unrelated note, guess who figured out after 8 years of running a blog how to schedule their posts for the future?

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Rolling with It

Magister Kyrillos Stauffheimer (don't consider this kind of name canonical for the setting yet) was a respected member of the orb programming community. He was about to present his grandest invention yet to the world, a vehicle that would run on four bowling-ball-sized orbs (or perhaps larger). Things went wrong when he got murdered while programming the wheels, resulting in his consciousness now being trapped inside one of them. Now he has to find out who murdered him while he's stuck in this orb body.

His orb's size is d12, which means he could be fairly strong, but he'd also have a harder time acting and reacting quickly. It also means he has the capacity for 12 units of alcohol, which would allow him to roll around for 48 hours at most, assuming he wouldn't be heating up his surface or creating matter around him. Who knows how far Magister Kyrillos will go... or should I say, roll?

Ratings

4/5 RPG. It has rules for how to play an orb, not much else. That being said, I think it's got potential to work as a TTRPG.

2/5 Soup Stone. At least the game tells you what are the limitations and capabilities of being an orb.

2/5 Would I Play. I feel more drawn to this than to most of my 200-word TTRPG experiments. That being said, I have games I wrote that I'd prefer a lot more.

5/5 Would I Write. For now, this is one of those ideas waiting in my brain cabinet to be uncovered when the need for it arises. Until then, I don't really feel a need to work on it.

13/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Bars on Mars

It's that time of day again. Let's go to Mars and see what's up there. Since this would require another coplayer to give downsides to my narc and weaknesses to the alien species, I'll just do that myself.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Bars on Mars

Miles Kite is a drug salesman in the Mars colony Redhill, populated by the aliens and humans alike. He's a human. He sells drugs out of necessity. His Number (the only stat in the game) is 7 because he's quite cautious and speedy and not that good at selling his drugs or lying. His weapon of choice is a pocket pistol, and the one thing that he loves the most in the world (other than money, of course) is his copy of the extended cut trilogy of The Lord of the Wings movies. An epic fantasy tale that he loves to experience time and time again, each time under the influence of a different drug. He starts with 19 megacredits.

The narcs he specializes in are IS10B and some other narc that would be described by another player. Since I get to describe this one, let's just say it's a chemical compound that makes you "high as ten bees", which is why it's got that name. Its primary downside is that it will make your sight blurry for a time.

Ratings

5/5 RPG. It's a bit of a stretch, but you know what? It feels like a TTRPG more than my other 200-worders so far, or even when compared to some of my one-pagers.

2/5 Soup Stone. At least this game gives you decent starting points for what to make.

1/5 Would I Play. If I feel like it, I might give it a go.

0/5 Would I Write. I'm rather uninterested in the project. It was made as part of a challenge, it is what it is.

8/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Intercosmic Bonds

This one would be way more interesting with other players. I'll see what I can do on my own.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Intercosmic Bonds

Flora Watt has the fastest reaction time you've ever seen. You toss a tennis ball her way, and she can catch it. You try to shoot her, and she could likely dodge it. You ask her something, and she'll speak before her answer is completely ready.

The world Flora is tied to intrinsically is the Wild West. Many cowboys and cowgirls wander this world seeking fame, justice, riches, or entertainment.

As for what her stats would be like, it's hard to tell. Other than the Reaction Speed, the remaining stats would depend on what other players would come up with. I know that Flora would have 

Ratings

4/5 RPG. It certainly feels like a TTRPG to me.

2/5 Soup Stone. You'll have to make up a lot of stuff to make this work. There are very few mechanics, but that's all part of the 200-word format, I suppose.

1/5 Would I Play. Maybe one day.

1/5 Would I Write. Unmotivated to do so.

8/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: The Heaviest Metal

Not sure if this one gets to be posted, but I'll do it anyway. Despite the fact it's less about the pilot and more about the preparation for his next tournament.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

The Heaviest Metal

Lotta Pi is getting ready for the next tournament by fixing her mech, E.14.

• (2) At first, she goes through a breakdown. Her machine is not at all ready, and finding spare parts for it is hard.
• (5) But then she finds a secret, some kind of device that should aid her in the tournament.
• (4) Upon doing some more research, she learns that this device is a secret government experiment meant for the protection of the Earth. It's damaged, obviously, they wanted to get rid of it, but why? And why is it abandoned in the junkyard, though?
• (6) She overhears an explosion; someone else is having bad luck preparing their mech. (At this point, I would twist another player's cube twice.)
• (4) She learns that the device was in the junkyard on purpose. Someone was meant to find it.
• (2) Someone comes looking for the device, giving Lotta a hard time.
• (1) On the next day though, she finds something that could fit the secret invention into her mech.
• (1) A friend of hers gives up on the tournament participation this time, and offers her an arm of his own mech suit. She gladly accepts it.
• (1) Her father sees the determination she has for this tournament, so he chips in too with some finances. Just what she needed.
• (6) A strong competitor of hers has an accident. (Twist another player's cube twice again).
• (1) Lotta receives a mysterious gift. Yet more parts that she needed
• (3) She finds out that all competitors received mysterious gifts. How strange.
• (4) There's a secret saboteur among the competitors looking for parts, trying to make people hate each other.
• (4) After some time spent searching, the pilots have identified the mole, a government agent who was meant to disrupt this tournament from ever happening.
• (4) The secret plan that the government has for these competitors is to give them deadly parts that they could use to actually kill each other so that the tournament doesn't happen.
• (6) I guess it worked on someone. Their mech went boom.
• (3) ... unless it was an accident?
• (3) Lotta finds love, I guess? Love in the junkyard.
• (1) With the help of her partner, she gets just the part she needs.
• (1) Her rival tossed away a part that he couldn't fit into his machine, so Lotta snatched it for her own.
• (1) And then she found another one of those government experiments. How strange.
• (9) To her shock, combining the force of two of these devices leads to exponential growth in destructive force. The time is up, though. The tournament day has come.

That was more tiring than it looked. But hey, now we know that Lotta has a couple of friends, rivals, a supportive father, and even a romantic partner.

Ratings

4/5 RPG. I'll be a bit more lenient; at least there's something to roleplay here.

1/5 Soup Stone. Here are the rules for how the mechs can fight. As for anything else, including everything I said in the previous section, I had to make that up myself. I was getting quite tired of it, honestly, since the only prompts I had to work with were Another Man's Treasure, Secret, Explosion, Breakdown, and Revelation.

1/5 Would I Play. I don't feel the draw to do it. Maybe as an experiment one time.

2/5 Would I Write. It's got potential. It would certainly benefit from a bunch of roll tables or more things to use.

8/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Hacks of One Trade

Another short system is coming right up. I'll aim to make this one short.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Hacks of One Trade

Benedict Tryce is one of a group of tailors. Whenever someone needs an article of clothing done from scratch as quickly as possible, these guys will have your back, provided they're not already working on something that day. Mr. Tryce is a brisk worker, which allows him to add +1 to any increases of Progress. That's how they can get their work done so quickly. Their goal is to become the best tailor troupe in town and the most stylish one day, too.

Ratings

1/5 RPG. Like most of my 200-word experiments, this one is more of a system test than a roleplaying game with options outside of a minigame.

1/5 Soup Stone. Crafting is done, but what about the rest of it?

1/5 Would I Play. Maybe? I'm not particularly motivated to play it, seeing how it's just a crafting minigame with some player options slapped on. But if I actually needed it, it's nice to have this system around.

1/5 Would I Write. For now, this is one of those ideas waiting in my brain cabinet to be uncovered when the need for it arises. Until then, I don't really feel a need to work on it.

4/20 Total Rating

Characters March 2025: Play It by Cheer!

Those of you who know where to see my releases might be wondering why I skipped Gon' Click. Well, in retrospect, you can't really make a character for that game. Sure, I could write up a description and all that, but at the end of the day, there's no mechanical substance that would make them different from other characters. This might complicate my challenge a little, seeing how I have roughly 30 TTRPGs out there, and not all of them might include some character creation rules. I'll worry about resolving that at the end of the month.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Play It by Cheer!

Scarlet Matters is a guitarist in the girl pop band called Peak Chic and the Babes. Let's first talk about her qualities and what they represent.

• Tempo 13. She can act really fast, but she has a hard time being careful.
• Intensity 12. She can be quite forceful and loud, but she has a hard time being subtle or unseen.
• Authenticity 7. She can raise people's spirits easily, but she has a harder time being empathetic to their troubles.
• Creativity 6. Her methods are simple and straightforward instead of unconventional.

She has good relationships with her band members. The keyboard player could be way more creative, the drummer could be even more intense, and the singer could be quite authentic, though all this depends on the other players.

Ratings

2/5 RPG. There was a music band system. It worked, kind of. Not sure if I'd say it was good, or much of an RPG on its own.

1/5 Soup Stone. It doesn't even have a core resolution mechanic written beyond the words "Use common sense". It's been almost two years, and I forgot what I meant - was the core resolution the same as rolling for the musical performance? Perhaps it was. At least the music playing was sorted out already.

0/5 Would I Play. Did you see that dice-rolling mechanic?? Roll d6+d12 and d8+d10, and keep the sum further from 10. That alone feels like it would take forever to get used to, and you'd have to do that a lot.

0/5 Would I Write. I already did. This system has been reworked and included in the Runehack RPG as the Seeker minigame. This was a fine start and an introduction of a cool probability curve I had never thought possible, but at the same time, that dice-rolling mechanic was really impractical, and the Qualities took me some time to fix. Not sure if I'll ever publish the newer music game as a standalone.

3/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Double the Zombies

Another day, another game to make a character for. This time, it's time to Double the Zombies.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Double the Zombies

My character for this game used to be a criminal before the society's collapse. That's why he's got a gun on him, along with ten bullets for it, and a sizeable pocket knife. His final mundane item is his Swiss army knife that he got from his father. His stats would be like this:

• forcefully +3
• subtly +4
• quickly +2
• carefully +1
• boldly +0
• cleverly +0

His goal is to survive. Hopefully, nobody will ever learns about his criminal past, especially once he starts caring about the people around him.

Ratings

4/5 RPG. I haven't played it yet, but I feel like the doubling of zombies gimmick might lead to some fights that would keep dragging on and on. That's why I give it a rating of 4.

1/5 Soup Stone. You'll need to make up the vast majority of stuff for this game to work.

2/5 Would I Play. I could imagine giving it a try one day if I expanded the rules.

1/5 Would I Write. Maybe? But right now I'm not feeling it at all.

8/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: (Almost) Everyone is Harry

Let's continue this series with a quick entry from the year when I committed myself to writing a game every month. Except this game came before I knew I'd challenge myself like that.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

(Almost) Everyone is Harry

This game features three types of players: the Game Master, the Detective, and the Voices in his head. Your goal is to solve a crime together despite your amnesia. I'm going to assume that I'll be a pair of voices inside of the detective's head, seeing how that will be the role of most players.

The number I'll choose for these two voices to share is 5. Sonder is a hunch you have for other people's lives. It allows you to guess what their job is, whether they have a family, what kinds of songs they like, and so on. It's not based on perceptions, at least not on the kind you'd be aware of. The other voice, much weaker than Sonder, is Attriage, your control over the emotions you feel for others. The original rules didn't say that the two voices have to be related, but I figured I'd try to connect them. It makes sense here - the better you know others, the harder time you'll have not feeling for them.

Ratings

3/5 RPG. Some important details are missing, but it's pretty clear this ain't a board game.

1/5 Soup Stone. Make up the characters. Make up the detective. Make up the crime. Make up the world. Make up the NPCs. A ton of work. You have to make up pretty much everything, save for the premise and the body hanging from a tree (and even that feels rather shallow).

1/5 Would I Play. It could be fun, but I'm not exactly driven to do it.

1/5 Would I Write. This was an experiment on my part. It's an okay premise, but if I were to return to it, it would be independent of franchises and maybe with more mechanics for how the voices could interact with each other, also giving each player maybe just one voice and figuring out another way to balance them. It's an okay start, but I don't feel like developing it more anytime soon.

6/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Fae King

Continuing in this month's challenge, here's the second article on my most recent game, the Fae King.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Fae King

I won't talk much about this game since it's fairly recent. Let's cut to the chase and get to the character.

Janette Swift is a mortal who wants to kill the Fae King to bring her husband back from the dead. Perhaps she's a model, fighting the fae on their home field of beauty. So her twelve spaces of adjectives are:

• Way Fair er
• Keen er
• Quick
• Prim
• Shrewd
• Smooth er
• Thin ner

Losing these would be tragic for her, but it would be worth it for her ultimate goal.

Ratings

2/5 RPG. Courting Phase gives opportunities for roleplaying. But outside of that, it's largely a game bound by its rules. This is what it takes to build the house of cards, this is what happens when you're being chased, and nothing happens when you're not in Elfame because it's not included in the rules.

4/5 Soup Stone. You still need to come up with the problems that the fae have, but other than that the three pages of rules give you plenty of stuff to work with.

2/5 Would I Play. This game was largely made for the game jam within a single week. It's okay, but I can't say it's something that actively entices me to give it a try.

2/5 Would I write. Right now, it's way too recent for me to delve into it in a useful way. Maybe after I let this project rest for a bit, I could do it.

11/20 Total Rating

Character March 2025: Clues and Hunches

This is a game I already reworked once. The older version of the game was published on this blog in March of 2023, and it was a decent starting point. I won't deal with that, though. Let's see how I will do with the newer version of the game.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Clues and Hunches

Miss Ponsible, first name Iris, is a private investigator with a strange power of reverting time a couple of seconds back. This gives her an edge in her investigations, allowing her to make daring moves and maneuvers without others knowing anything about them. That being said, her only domain of specialization is in psychology. At least she has a friend on her phone, Theodore, who knows a lot about culture. That being said, the one thing she can rely on the most is her intuition, represented by the six points of Hunch.

Ratings

5/5 RPG. Barely anything about this feels like a board game. One could argue it's comparable to telling someone a puzzle, but I still think that roleplaying it makes it feel different.

2/5 Soup Stone. The system gives you a decent set of special powers, a way to progress your character, example domains, and guidelines for GM preparation. That being said, the GM will have a lot of prep ahead of them, and they'll have to stay on guard throughout the game in case the players pull off something unexpected.

5/5 Would I Play. I am working on a oneshot with this system, so that's a yes.

4/5 Would I Write. If I get decent ideas and won't have anything higher up on my priorities list, I would.

16/20 Total Rating

Characters March 2025: Deviants

New month, new challenge. This time, I decided to go through the TTRPG Character Creation Jam. The goal of this jam is to create 31 characters throughout March. I will revisit games I made, make characters for them, and rate them with my current point of view on them. I'm gonna put little effort into these articles, since there's likely gonna be 31 of them.

My ratings will be done on four scales, each ranging from 1 to 5:

• RPG: How much does this feel like an RPG to me, as opposed to a board game?
• Soup Stone: How little content does the game expect you to add? For this scale, 0 is a complete Soup Stone since I'd like to sum the scores to see the game's total score.
• Would I Play: If I were given a chance to, would I play this game?
• Would I Write: If I were inspired enough and had time/energy for it, would I get back to working on this game?

Deviants

My first proper TTRPG. Deviants was based on a simple premise, playing superpowered people in a modern setting. It was very inspired by Prototype and inFamous, and I believe it holds up well enough.

My character grew up in a big city where the game takes place. He's a grounded person who doesn't overuse his powers too much, but he uses them for good. He probably hides them and tries to live a normal life for the most part. His powers allow him to manipulate Neodynium, which is why he purchased a whole set of Neodynium magnets and made a cool weapon out of them. I'm imagining something akin to the Buster Sword that can split into several floating parts he can telekinetically manipulate. Though I'm not sure if he'd be that violent. As for his name, Drew Near.

Ratings

5/5 RPG. No arguing with this; it's quite a freeform game.

1/5 Soup Stone. That being said, the only thing the game gives you beyond the core resolution mechanics-wise is the system for injuries. Anything beyond that would have to be added to the game.

3/5 Would I Play. I could go with this if I needed to run a quick game with very little player-side prep. However, I'm afraid the GM need to prepare a lot more.

4/5 Would I Write. I don't have ideas as to how I could expand the system or whether it even needs expanding. But yes, if I had everything necessary for an update, I would be very willing to republish this game as a better product.

13/20 Total Rating