#caltrop core

[titanrpg]

caltrop core hit 20,000 downloads??

thank y'all so much!!

if you've ever wanted to make your own ttrpg but didn't know where to start, click here to check out caltrop core. it's free and open license. and it uses exclusively d4s!

#indie ttrpg #ttrpg #caltrop core #indie games

[filohazard]

I Wrote A New Short RPG

Be a little Rat and help your spiritually-assigned Resident live a better life, or fuck it up worse.

#indie rpg #ttrpg #itch rpg #caltrop core

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

IAYAS v.1.2 update!

I've re-released I Adjure You Ancient Serpent! It's the first RPG made with @titanomachyrpg's Caltrop Core, and for its second birthday, I went and redid its layout, made some rule changes, and added a bunch of pictures.

There's a bunch of community copies available for those interested!

#caltrop core #i adjure you ancient serpent #exorcism #indie rpg

[corsairesix]

"Forty years ago, the skies opened up and maps became useless." The Dreaded and the Deep is a nautical terror game in which you sail the haunted Dosolti Sea, and become irrevocably changed by what you experience.

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #caltrop core #nautical horror

[theresattrpgforthat]

I find myself really enjoying OSR/NSR systems like Cairn, or Durf, i like that their rules-lite, and have a lot of freedom for player/gm alike but find myself wanting classes with possible class abilities, or similar mechanics, I'm curious if you have any recommendations of that

THEME: Rules-lite Systems with Classes.

Some things to keep in mind: OSR games are stripped down to bare bones because character ingenuity (rather than brute force) is meant to take the forefront. This is why characters don’t usually have class abilities. 

What I’m hearing you ask for is something that keeps light rules, in the same way OSR systems do, but still provides a way to differentiate characters from each-other. I don’t know if all of these suggested games can be classed as OSR or NSR, but they require the same amount of creativity to push the game forward.

24XX Tides Will Rise, by Tubatic. 

A STORM IS COMING!

The crew finds themselves at a settlement preparing for a huge seasonal storm.  Using mechs like in that one movie with the aliens, or whatever you choose, help prepare the settlement to survive The Storm.  

24XX Tides Will Rise is a microgame  / oneshot designed in the style of Jason Tocci's 2400, created for submission to the 24XX Jam. 

24XX games are a distillation of OSR games, usually only about two pages or so, with dice that scale up or down in size depending on your character’s situation and aptitude. Your character will usually get a special ability related to their class, career, background, or in this version, Pilot Skill. There’s also a simplified money and gear system that gets you one or two pieces of useful items that are destined to break at some point, in order to reduce whatever harm you take. Tides Will Rise is about preparing your local settlement for an extreme weather event using giant mechs, but 24XX games could happen in nearly any setting, and are almost always deadly for your characters. If you want a quick game that you can learn and get up and running in less than 30 minutes, this is the game for you!

Hexfall, by titanomachyRPG.

You are a hyperpowered being who came into larger-than-life abilities because of a profound cataclysm. Heartbreak. Grief. The depths. Physical, emotional, multidimensional–something unlocked incredible power in you. People like you have many names across Stratus Cay, but the most common is “Diver,” a nickname derived from their affinity for falling through the Rift, either on dangerous jobs or just for fun. 

Divers’ abilities run the gamut of even the wildest imaginations, and their extreme power and durability makes many of them reckless thrillseekers. The pay is too good and the thrills too extraordinary to turn down the opportunity to go on a dive.

What will you do, falling soul?

Hexfall uses Caltrop Core, a rules-lite system that requires 3d4 and that’s it. Like many OSR games, it uses a hex map that your characters will navigate as they fall through an inter dimensional space called the Rift, their movements and obstacles determined by the roll of the dice. The characters gain tokens as they fall, which act as player currency that can affect narrative beats or navigation rolls as you play. Finally, there are 12 playbooks that you can choose to represent your character: will you be a resilient Giantborn? A liberating MotherThawed? A masterful Myconaut? Each character playbook comes with special moves that only you can do.

High Magic Lowlives, by Gem Room Games.

High Magic Lowlives is a Post-Dungeon Fantasy Tabletop RPG about wizard school dropouts who get into trouble with the Immortal Aristocracy to make coin and build their #brand. Like old school RPGs this is a game about a crew of weirdos finding subterranean vaults filled with treasure, kicking down doors, beating up guards, setting off traps, and taking home as much coin as you can carry. Like new school RPGs the mechanics are simple, drive the story forward, and don't rely on a ton of preparation in advance.

Unlike any RPG you've ever played before you can get paid for livestreaming your fight against the jack-o-lantern queen of zabraxas. Your companions would probably prefer you help them survive the fight, but they'll forgive you when you capture their critical hit for all to see.

High Magic Lowlives uses a ruleset that is a combination of Powered by the Apocalypse, Forged in the Dark, and the Black Hack. Your lowlife has 6 attributes, which could range from 0 to 3. Each character also selects a General Deal, which grants you a special ability, such as access the local library, sweet-talk computers, or gather food in unlikely places. Similar to OSR games, there are tables and tables of items that you can use for conventional and non-conventional uses, and, in step with PbtA mechanics, there are graded levels of success when it comes to hitting things with a weapon. You also have Risk Dice, which deteriorate as you use them, lending the feeling of dwindling resources as you play. If you want a game of high risk, high reward, I recommend High Magic Lowlives!

Aetherway, by Jason Tocci.

Hit the road between worlds with a black cat, a clockwork assassin, a fallen star, and a pilgrim who huffs the ashes of a dead saint. Deliver lumber to communist skeletons living on the back of a gargantuan crab. Ride a comet to a party in the skull of a cosmic god that was converted to condos.

Aetherway is a quirky, planet-hopping RPG zine, compatible with both Tunnel Goons and Troika! Use it to improvise your own adventures, as set of extra Troika! backgrounds, as a conversion guide between Troika! and Tunnel Goons rules, or a bunch of random generators for any other game of planeswalking hijinks. 

This is mostly another chance for me to talk about Troika again, because it’s a) a really funky setting, and b) a game that borrows a lot of elements from OSR-style games. You have random roll tables, backgrounds that give your characters skills and abilities, and an initiative order that leaves everything up to chance. However, you can also use Aetherway to play Tunnel Goons, which is a rules-lite game that contains much of the hallmarks of OSR. 

Planet Dungeon, by Nathan Lathroum.

Ever since birth, the dungeon is all you’ve ever known. All you’ve ever seen. All you were ever meant to see. Who built the dungeon? Is there anything beyond it? How long has the world been trapped here? You can almost smell the fresh outside air. You can almost feel the heat of the sun. You can almost taste victory. But your journey is not over yet.

Ten floors of the dungeon remain. This is all that stands between you and the mythical surface of the Aboveworld. Does it truly exist, or is it merely legend? Is there still a world beyond these walls?

Planet Dungeon is a tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) designed for 3 to 5 players. This book contains all of the rules, systems, and mechanics you will need to play. Additionally, Planet Dungeon requires two regular dice for each player and a singular deck of playing cards. Be warned: Planet Dungeon is not easy, and is intended for players willing to lose.

This game uses 2d6 and a deck of playing cards. As a table, you will create the planet you live on, and select backgrounds for your characters. Each background carries with it a pre-determined set of stats and a unique ability - including the Wretched, which starts woefully bereft of any ability, but has the chance to level up dramatically the first time you reach a boss in any given session. The rooms of each dungeon are determined by a card pulled from the deck, with the suit determining the type of the room. Cards also describe your death, should it happen, as well as what the end of the story looks like, once you escape. If you like simple rules and overwhelming odds, this might be worth checking out.

Lost Eons, by David Blandy.

LOST EONS is solarpunk sci-fantasy. In Lost Eons you will emerge from the darkness into a new light, one dominated by inscrutable and terrible forces you must seek to understand. Using this guide create a post-human character, ready to face the mysteries and dangers of a far future Earth.

LOST EONS is a fast but deep toolkit. Play instant no-prep one-shots and sustained campaigns. Discover beautiful and horrifying new adventures through evocative prompts and procedural generation. This game is no-maths and instantly playable. Mashing together 24XX and Blades in the Dark, gameplay is streamlined, flexible, fast and potentially brutal. Level-up through mutation, your body changing as you evolve. Character Playbooks let you create a character in seconds, yet have limitless customisation through play.

LOST EONS uses all of the basic dice types to tackle obstacles, depending on what you’re doing and what piece of equipment you use to help you. Like Blades in the Dark, this game uses clocks to track consequences, health and adventures, while similar to the grit of dungeon-delving games, the characters find their inventory slowly dwindling the longer they adventure. Survival is difficult in this post-human future. At character creation, you choose one of six different archetypes that will give you a set of skills and a unique talent. If you’re looking for new approaches to play while holding on to some of the tone of OSR games, LOST EONS may be a good fit for you.

#dnd #tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #osr #24xx #caltrop core #asks

[barit0wned]

I’m designing a queer anti-cop dungeon crawl ttrpg called ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 1312 (built with @titanrpg’s Caltrop Core!) and this addition for the second playtest is probably my favorite thing so far

#assault on precinct 1312 #imagine Dredd (2012) but the bad guys are cops and the players are queer antifa supersoldiers #ttrpg #indie ttrpg #caltrop core

[openstorygames]

Spooky season is coming!

To get in the mood, check out Dolorine! A dark fantasy journaling game about pain and a deity who channels her suffering into power, Dolorine has spooky vibes with epic overtones perfect for dark nights when the barriers of the world feel thin. Play as Dolorine, defeat Mortisi, and determine the consequences of your journey as you play! Find Dolorine on Itch and begin your own journey.

#dark fantasy #journaling rpg #solo journaling rpg #ttrpgs #indie ttrpgs #caltrop core #built on aspire

[entwifeexperience]

Bloodless by Ennio Final Entry

Final Event  

CW: Blood, Death, Bereavement

Sunrise approaches and you're almost at your goal.  

4d4+1=7  

You survived the night but there’s still a problem. Describe how your situation got more complicated. 

The sun glares at me from the horizon as I duck into the ruined mausoleum. 

The first thing I realise is Isobell is dead.  

The smell of her blood hangs thick in the air. I know what I will see when I enter our room, but I force myself to witness it myself; burn the nightmarish tableau into my mind to haunt my sleeping hours, so my waking ones are not filled with recriminations and regret. 

The door stands ajar. Darkness pours through the gap in the doorway and threatens to consume me. The glow of my eyes is dimmed in this abyss, but I compel myself to enter the room. 

The stench of blood and dead organs exposed to air fills the room like a funeral shroud. She adorns the room. I cannot take in the horror. It is too much to take. 

I stumble and fall to the wet floor. Pulling a bloody sheet from the bed, I wrap myself in what’s left for her and sob in dawn darkness. 

*** 

When I wake, my eyes are sealed with clotted tears, but I feel the twins on either side of me. 

*** 

I had an absolute blast playing this game and writing this narrative. Most entries were written in the wee hours or first thing in the morning, so I apologise for any lack of clarity, grammar or quality.

Bloodless by @enniogoes

A Vampire Survival Solo RPG

I have played a lot of solo journalling games, which makes me confident to say that this is a perfect example of the medium and inspired use of the Caltrop Core system by @titanrpg!

Ennio takes the classic vampire tropes and inspiration from "the Vampire the Masquerade actual play “LA by Night” and the What We Do in the Shadows series", and uses them to great effect, especially with the clever framing of the badly wounded and exhausted vampire fighting the coming dawn.

"Chances are good that you won’t see another twilight"

The Caltrop Core system framework with the assigned stats allows for variously-focussed characters with the use of Blood Tokens and how they are gained and lost in Absolute Successes/ Failures lends to incredible highs and lows that made for a genuinely exhilarating experience and exciting narrative.

The prompts themselves are the most paired-back element of the game, which I could see being a little tough for some, but this is beautifully balanced by the scenario, stats and character prompts, and richly flavoured tables for rolling up who your vampire is, why they are in their predicament they're in, and what else you have at risk.

This game reignited my love for solo journaling game and made me start working on my own Caltrop Core game!

#solo ttrpg #ttrpg #itchio #indie ttrpg #bloodless #vampire #caltrop core #journaling game #solo game #solo journaling game #Brina Plays #BrinaPlays #Write up #ttrpg write up

[dayseyemay]

So I finally got around to publishing a game i’d been thinking about for awhile! it’s always a work in progress but i’m at least proud to have found the motivation to post a project!

If you like one-shot games, and want to play some robots trying to fight some superheroes while discovering their own passion then you should check it out!

let’s see if this motivation continues to get some other projects out!

#ttrpg design #ttrpg #itch.io #caltrop core

[corrosivesquid]

After a conversation on the bird app with PandionGames, I wanted to show some love to our very first game. We have learned a lot in the way of design and I'm learning a new program to design spreads, so what better way than to look at our first game we made for the Caltrop Core Jam II, Fuck Fairy Godmothers. I really like the fresh look it has and even did some work in re-explaining and re-wording things. I decided to leave the old one up on the itch page for a while, I might take it down eventually, but I wanted to show other designers it's okay to revisit old games, I learned that from PandionGames and I think it's important to share that. It doesn't mean you failed or didn't do well, it means you've learned. For me, there is a sort of symbolism of respect for where you started when you give things a new look with what you've learned. I cannot wait to see what else we as a team learn moving forward with bigger and better games!

#ttrpg #indie ttrpgs #caltrop core #table top games #table top role playing game #tabletop games

[titanrpg]

TTRPGs for Palestine via Tiltify is now live! Get a bunch of my games and MUCH more for just a $15 donation.

Link: https://tiltify.com/@jesthehuman/ttrpgs-for-palestine

#indie ttrpg #ttrpg #caltrop core #palestine #charity bundle

[akkator]

Update

With the seas around DnD being as they are I'm going to be widening my opportunities.

I will probably still release stuff for dnd, though at a diminished rate as its killed my vibes.

1) Bare minimum I'll be getting my compendium up to scratch because I like my stuff being all cleaned up.

2) Also making master posts on my Classes like I did with Gunslinger.

I'm working on a small TTRPG using Caltrop Core, based around a future with replicator technology.

I may return to Bunkers and Badasses because it holds a weird place in my heart.

#post #dnd #dnd 5e #dnd homebrew #caltrop core #Bunkers and Badasses #Badassd20

[geekalogian]

TTRPGs I'm Currently Working On:

Because if I write them somewhere maybe somebody will hold me accountable to actually do something with them 1. Ca-fae A game about the shenanigans of a group of feyfolk and other regulars at a coffee shop that is also a gateway to the world of faerie. Using the Caltrop Core system developed by @titanrpg 2. Untitled Pokemonesque fighting game Yet another in the series of "but can it be Pokemon" experiments I run with various SRDs, this time using Lumen by Spencer Campbell of GilaRPGs. I think the loadout options available in Lumen as switchable Pokemon is a really interesting concept.

3. Mantle of the Gods My eternally in-development setting with no system to call a home. Something like if your Percy Jackson-esque genre had a horrible baby with a sentai team. Imagines the gods of various pantheons as mantles of power, distributed to mortals every age or so, which drive forward the course of history until new heroes must take up the mantle. I want to do cool things with this but I struggle to separate fun mythos from living religion, in an effort to be respectful. So many more oh my gosh but those 3 are the ones that pop up in my mind frequently.

#ttrpgs #my unfinished projects #frickin ADHD #gosh I wish I could finish literally anything #caltrop core #indie ttrpg #lumen

[corsairesix]

Hey everyone, since I've got some new follows, here's a little bit of who I am.

I'm Erin, and I write, design, and create layout for TTRPGs. I got my start writing D&D stuff for DMsGuild, and now have branched out into designing my own creations. My three biggest projects are FIRMAMENT, Orphans!, and The Dreaded and the Deep.

FIRMAMENT is an action fantasy tactics game inspired by MOBAs and hero shooters. You play as a Champion of the Firmament, a warrior or mage empowered to fight back against the corrupt magic of Affliction. It's a power fantasy action game, so expect quick action and sick combos.

Orphans! is an all-ages rules-lite narrative-driven game inspired by gothic kidlit. If you loved A Series of Unfortunate Events or The Mysterious Benedict Society as a kid, or you know a kid who does, this is your game.

The Dreaded and the Deep is a play-to-lose nautical terror game. You will die at the end, it's just a question of how long you can last and how you are changed trying to stave off the inevitable. It draws a lot of inspiration from Sunless Sea, so if you like exploring the Underzee, you might like sailing the Dosolti Sea.

You can find all of them on itch.io at Veil's Edge Games.

#ttrpg #indie ttrpg #caltrop core #lumen

[theresattrpgforthat]

thank you so much for promoing NIGHTHAWKS! so that's where that sale came from :) also, i'm working on a potential physical release for NIGHTHAWKS by the end of the year, i've come to realize it's my best game by a long shot

That's awesome!!!! I love seeing game experiences that allow the creator and the audience to bond over something that speaks to both of them. If folks want to check out the current iteration of NIGHTHAWKS, a rpg about a liminal diner and loneliness inspired by the painting of the same title, you can check it out here! It's built off of Caltrop Core, an extremely designer-friendly system.

#asks #check it out!!!! #nighthawks #caltrop core #mint speaks

[barit0wned]

I’m not saying I’ve created the Best Game Ever but I am saying it’s a game where the narrator of one of the worst fanfics ever written and some guy named Greg can both be members of a polycule of queer antifa supersoldiers who fight cops and robots and maybe an eldritch abomination or two

#assault on precinct 1312 #queer antifa supersoldiers #ebony dark'ness dementia raven way #greg from accounting #my immortal #indie ttrpg #ttrpg #caltrop core