Portraits of Adventurers in Original System Playtest

Adventurers of the Caverns of Ublad - Drawn by ghobo

It's been almost a month since I last posted. Been busy with work and other RPG brainstorming shanenigans as usual. I think solo-RPGs are not as productive as I thought it would be and so I have put them on pause for now. 

Recently I've been working on my original homebrew system called the "BASS System" - the abbreviation referring to the four main stats - Beauty, Ability, Strength and Spirit - used in the system. Why I chose these four stats - well it was around 3 months ago since formulated the system in the span of around 3 days, and if I recall my previous mood, I remembered I wanted a quick and easy system that allowed me to summarize all the key qualities of an adventurer in terms of roleplay, without removing that player agency - i.e. Beauty instead of Charisma, because the player should be encouraged to look for RP ways of convincing or persuading a character instead of rolling a die, whereas Beauty is more of a god-given trait that will spice up RP situations - as people flock to people with high BEA, and people treat terribly or put distance between themselves and a person with low BEA.

Currently, I am using my spare time to develop more magics and techniques for more experienced adventurers, as soon I will have to test my advancement system, and I hope the four currently in my play by post game will continue to the next game I prepared which will be much larger in scope and much more challenging (since based on my solo playtest, it is entirely possible to clear the scenario solo as a new character if you are very very careful).

As play-by-post games are naturally very slow - which I like - the game has pushed on into its 3rd month. I only expect players to post at least once a day, and I prefer this rate of gameplay as it gives even ultra busy people (like me lol) time to enjoy a game. 

The image above depicts the party of 4 currently in my game called the Caverns of Ublad, a simple scenario I designed to test out the mechanics of the game. So far, the social side seems pretty good, and players are actively asking questions, examining the environment, instead of relying on rolls like 5e or CoC - which I find diminishes the point of an RPG.

I feel really blessed to have very dedicated players, in particular the ones playing Isobel and Vibius, who have written very well. Kasyas and Vygoda just joined the game not long ago, and I hope that they will stick on until the end of the game at the very least... A few people who joined previously just disappeared after a few moments, which was really a sad thing - as one of the potential players was going to play as a savant with around 4 pets - which I think would have resulted in a very exciting scenario.

Oh well, maybe that person will join the next game, if the current four do not wish to continue...

I also wanted to talk about another RPG system I have been developing that aims to clone a rather obscure Japanese Tabletop RPG called "Red Dragon" which was supposedly developed in 2013, but never had its rulebook released... But I think I will leave that for tomorrow, and give a sneak peak of it.