d1 RPG is a joke, right? Of course it’s a joke. Reading the rules makes it abundantly clear that this is a bit of a spoof. A parody what it means to play an RPG.
Isn’t it?
I mean, it has charts! Table A tells you the results of each side of your d1: if you roll a 1, your action succeeds. That’s it. No failures, no complications, nothing but success.
Parselings has a early millennium action-webcomic aesthetic and tone, where players take on the role of the titular Parselings; ordinary folk who have become infected with strange ink-like entities that bond with their hosts and tattoo words on their bodies. Caught between humanity and dark linguistic monstrosities, the Parselings use the magic of these words to heal or harm the infected world.
The world of Parselings is deeply thematic, drawing on ideas of mutual aid, internal versus external definition, freedom versus self-control, and the complexities of communication when others may have already labeled you differently than you label yourself.
Knave is an OSR (Old Style Ruleset, Old School Renaissance, or Old System Revival — I’ve seen them all) RPG. OSR games hearken back to the olden days of dungeon delving and hack n’ slashing. A system without a pre-built world, Knave is designed to be modular and adaptable to any compatible systems, bestiaries, spellbooks, and adventures.
There is a long and detailed history of OSR gaming, and I won’t go into that now. For now, I want to talk about dice.
Ironsworn, set in an iron-age dark fantasy world, is a game about survival. To quote the game itself: “You will explore untracked wilds, fight desperate battles, forge bonds with isolated communities, and reveal the secrets of this harsh land. Most importantly, you will swear iron vows and see them fulfilled — no matter the cost.”
The mechanics of this game are quite interesting to me, but I want to focus on one specific design choice; everything — from a single combat to the campaign as a whole — is represented by progress tracks.
Badger + Coyote is a GM-less dual RPG. One player plays Badger, the other Coyote. Asymmetrical in design, Badger has skills that allow them to do things in the game, such as digging, trapping, and sniffing. Coyote, on the other hand, can only spot, pounce, or make a roll to “speak” a sentence to badger, who can then respond. This is the only way that the two characters can communicate to each other.
After the War is, quote: “a tabletop science-fiction role-playing game of memetic horror. Ten years after the galactic war, millions of survivors try to rebuild on the frontier world of Polvo. They seek to guard their new homes from internal strife and the psychic fallout from the war.” This does not do justice to the horrific history that your characters have to deal with.
Among After the War’s inspirations is Fiasco. Like Fiasco, the game proscribes a slightly more regimented method of finding out what happens next, apart from the more laissez-faire method of most RPGs.
Of Grub and Grain is an RPG supplement — a minigame, if you will — about cooking. Cooking is an often overlooked aspect of RPGs, generally falling into the same pit of uninteresting chores that we would simply rather not take part in. Generally, Cooking is dealt with the same way that eating is; ignoring it completely.
You ever notice how characters in RPGs never go to the bathroom? They never really “get hungry,” either. Oh, they eat of course, but only whenever there’s a plot-important reason to do so. If a player suddenly decides its lunchtime and goes to the local tavern, you better believe a quest-hook is going to be drinking in the corner.
Fate of the Budayeen is a fan-made adaptation of the Budayeen setting from George Alec Effinger’s “Marîd Audran” series to FATE, specifically FATE Accelerated. I won’t detail the adaption process here, as Mechante Anemone has already done so. Instead, I want to talk about FATE Accelerated as a system.
FATE Accelerated is a hack of the Core FATE system. Like FATE Core, FATE Accelerated uses aspects to define characters, forcing them to engage with the game narratively as well as mechanically. The changes are fairly minor: simplifying the stunt system, removing multiple stress tracks, removing the Extras mechanic, etc. The largest and most significant difference for our purposes: Unlike Core, the Accelerated ruleset don’t use skills, it uses Approaches.
Into the Odd is at once an homage to and a departure from the classic RPGs of the 70s and 80s. In the game, to quote the book: “You are an Explorer, braving the unknown in search of riches, fame, knowledge and power. Most of all, you seek Arcana, strange devices hosting unnatural powers beyond technology. They range from the smallest ring to vast machines.”
The system itself does a lot of very interesting things, but rather than give a full system breakdown, what I want to talk about is how Into the Odd handles stats.
Heroes of Adventure could easily be called a bit of a D&D clone, but just because it’s high-fantasy doesn’t make it a copycat. The world-building is certainly D&D-like, and your heroes can be the ubiquitous wizards, warriors, rangers, thieves, and clerics; but the system uses a die-size system instead of a flat d20 system. Spells are limited through schools, rather than classes: if you learn Air magic, you can cast Air spells, no matter if you are a cleric, druid, or magi. Religious characters gain Piety Points based on their behavior, which can be spent on divine favors like granting re-rolls or raising the dead.
