being a GM is really fun because sometimes you can make your players go through some really traumatic Evangelion bullshit, but other times you can force them to go bowling for no reason
My new single-player TTRPG, No-Tell Motel, is now available! Come on over and grab a PDF, or throw in $5 more to pre-order your physical copy.
In No-Tell Motel, you play the overnight clerk at a sleazy motel. One of your guests murders another one, and no one much seems to care who did it or why. No one but you, that is.
Playing the game only requires a standard deck of playing cards and a six-sided die. You use the face cards to identify your motel's regular guests (yes, the book comes ready with 16), and the numbers cards to randomly generate things that happen between them.
And unlike most build-as-you-go mystery games, you can make your best guess and still get it very, very wrong.
The nightly spread of the game looks a bit like a hand of Solitaire, and that's on purpose. I wanted playing the game to feel a little bit like something you'd do to pass the time in the small hours of the morning.
Here's how it works.
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The rules generate different murder victims and methods, a highly randomized yet still coherent matrix of guest gossip, actions and conflict, and most importantly: a way to find out if your accusation was correct, and what the consequences are for pointing the finger.
If you like pulp crime, The Conversation, or Errol Morris's Tabloid, you should check out No-Tell Motel.
Today, I wanna talk about one of the funniest spells ever to enter Pathfinder 2e
Outcast's Curse is a level 4 spell that allows you to ruin the life of any one person who is not themselves a spellcaster.
On a simple Will Save failure, the victim is now permanently cursed to be considered abrasive and irritating by ALL CREATURES. Living or dead. This means you roll ALL charisma checks with disadvantage, and all social interactions start with the other creature dropping 1-2 attitude levels.
Your target is now hated by everything, and everyone, everywhere, forever.
"But wait, you can break the curse by counteracting it!"
You could. You just have to find a 4th level caster, who are exceptionally skilled and difficult to find, and then try to convince that automatically Unfriendly or Hostile caster to uncurse you
While you roll at disadvantage
Just to get your only chance at salvation to be merely indifferent about your wellbeing.
It doesn't get talked about enough, but This Discord Has Ghosts In It is a rad example of how you can adapt game design to your surroundings.
Basically, This Discord Has Ghosts In It is a digital larp. It's Phasmophobia played by chat. Your group creates a discord server to function as a haunted house, then you all explore it, building new 'rooms' out of channels as you go.
Some players take the roles of ghosts, and are muted but can affect the environment in the haunted house.
Other players take the roles of explorers, and can talk, but the ghosts are all listening.
Discord wasn't built to be gamified this way, but that doesn't matter.
As long as you can guarantee consistent behavior from a thing, you can build mechanics off of it.
Anything in your environment can be turned into a game.
And in this particular case, it's a really good one!
The mechanics lend themselves well to the kinds of pacing, limited communication, and untrustworthy setting that any good ghost story needs.
@probablybadrpgideas Curse of Strahd but Strahd has been replaced by an over the top undead wrestler with a penchant for masks. A litchador, if you will.